Abstract
A cow with mastitis has a high somatic cell count (SCC) in its milk. Cow-share-contribution of somatic cells to the bulk milk tank (BMTSCC) refers to the relative addition made by each cow’s milk to the bulk tank’s SCC. Since bulk milk is graded and priced according to the BMTSCC, high-yielding cows with mastitis are the main contributors to penalizations in milk price. The benefits of acoustic pulse technology (APT) application to tissues are well documented, including its anti-inflammatory effect and restoration of tissue function by triggering natural healing processes. An APT-based device was developed specifically for treating mastitis in dairy cows. It enables rapid and deep penetration of the acoustic pulses over a large area of the udder in a single session. A study was performed on six farms with a total of 3,900 cows. One unit of cow-share-contribution equaled the addition of 1,000 cells to each mL of the bulk milk volume above the mean BMTSCC. A total of 206 cows were selected: 103 were treated with APT and 103 served as controls. All of the cows contributed over 1.5 units to the BMTSCC at the time of treatment. Seventy-five days after APT treatment, 2 of the 103 treated cows (1.9%) were culled, compared to 19 (18.5%) of the 103 control cows, as well as infected quarter dry-off in 5 others (4.85%). Overall success was defined as a decrease of >75% in cow-share-contribution from treatment time in two of the three monthly milk recordings following treatment. Results indicated 57.3% success for the APT-treated cows vs. 14.6% for the untreated control groups. Highest share-contribution provide an additional tool for the farmer’s decision of how to control BMTSCC. Because the cow-share-contribution value is relative to herd size and BMTSCC, this study included a similar number of cows, with similar SCC and milk yield from each of the six herds.
Highlights
Bulk milk tank somatic cell count (BMTSCC) is a long-standing marker of milk quality, impacting cheese production [1], milk flavor, and product shelf life [2]
In most industrial dairy operations, since the dairy cannot control every animal milked into the bulk tank, milk quality and price are regulated through the BMTSCC
Each pair of cows was selected according to lactation number, days in milk (DIM), daily milk yield (MY), SCC and SCC-share-contribution as appeared in the Israeli Cattle Breeders Association (ICBA) monthly report
Summary
Bulk milk tank somatic cell count (BMTSCC) is a long-standing marker of milk quality, impacting cheese production [1], milk flavor, and product shelf life [2]. SCC in the milk of uninfected mammary glands is low (10–100 × 103 cells/mL) [3, 4], whereas intramammary infection is the single major cause of udder inflammation, which results in increased SCC and affects the quality and quantity of the produced milk [5, 6]. To produce milk with low SCC, dairy farms have several options: control and/or treat mastitis and refrain from milking the glands/udder into the bulk milk tank, or cull the cow. Within this framework, every cow/day whose milk is not sent into the bulk tank decreases the farmer’s income, but its costs remain the same. Drawbacks include (i) type and sensitivity of the bacteria–additional cost for laboratory testing, veterinarian labor and drugs; (ii) discarding milk for days after treatment, regardless of recovery (loss of money); (iii) complying with strategies of antibiotic overuse due to the development of antimicrobial resistance over time, and decrease of antibiotics use
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