Cost Of Mastitis Research Articles

The Economic Implications of Bioengineered Mastitis Control

This paper estimates the cost of mastitis for the New York dairy sector. The average cost is found to be $125 per cow from reduced milk production, treatment, and increased culling. At the 1988 cow inventory, this translates to approximately $100million annually for the entire dairy farm sector. When quality and production losses for the processing sector are added, the cost to the New York industry alone is nearly $150million annually. Two promising new treatments, a bacteriocin and a vaccine, are evaluated. Both have shown effectiveness in preliminary trials against Staphylococcus aureus. Assuming that further development will allow the treatments to be effective against the major bacterial sources of mastitis infections, the treatments are projected to increase the annual income of the New York dairy industry by $18.8 to $39.7million. The bacteriocin could replace antibiotic usage, a desirable goal in the opinion of many, and the vaccine promises to immunize cows against mastitis very effectively.

Factors Influencing Profitability of Jersey and Holstein Lactations

Dairy Herd Improvement Association production records and farm records on clinical mastitis treatment from 1617 Holstein and Jersey cows calving between July 1980 and July 1983 on one farm in north Florida were used to evaluate the profitability of 2414 lactations. The investigation demonstrates the use of a profit function to determine the relative importance of factors influencing profitability of lactations of different breed, parity and season of calving. It serves to indicate changes that would yield the greatest financial reward by identifying major inherent economic strengths and weaknesses.Breed, parity, and season of calving accounted for less than 10% of the variation in profit per lactation. Holstein lactations were more profitable than Jersey lactations except for parity 4 lactations and for cows calving between January and June when no significant breed differences were apparent. Milk yield was the single most important determinant of profitability in Jersey lactations, regardless of parity or season of calving. Days of mastitis treatment explained more of the variation in profit per lactation than did milk yield for Holstein lactations calving between January and March and for Holstein lactations of parity greater than 4. Mastitis costs were a maximum of 8.2% of total costs for Holstein lactations of parity 6.

Mastitis in a large, zero-grazed dairy herd.

A zero-grazed herd of approximately 400 cows had a significant mastitis problem associated with Escherichia coli and Streptococcus uberis during a study over three and a half years. Dry cow therapy and post-milk teat dipping effectively controlled staphylococci and the bulk milk cell count averaged less than 400 X 10(3) cells/ml, but over 1800 clinical cases of mastitis occurred over this period, 32 per cent of which were associated with E coli and 25 per cent with Str uberis. Only 8 per cent of the cases associated with E coli showed obvious systemic disturbance and 75 per cent were cured following penicillin and streptomycin treatment. The incidence was highest during spring and summer when the housed cows were dirtiest. Gross teat-end contamination came mainly from sources other than cubicle bedding, and changing the bedding from sawdust to sand did not alter the incidence of clinical mastitis. It was not possible to maintain adequate cleanliness either inside or outside the parlour, nor maintain a trouble-free milking apparatus. The costs of mastitis in this herd during one year are calculated.

Repeatability of Net Economic Effeciency in Dairy Cattle and Role of Some Economic Variables as Its Predictors1,2,3

This investigation was to explore the possibility of improving net profitability in dairy cattle. Net profitability was measured as: 1) total profit; 2) profit per day of herd life; and 3) profit per unit of investment. Repeatabilities were estimated by three methods from two data sets consisting of 202 observations on 78 Holstein cows up to the end of their third calving interval. Repeatabilities of cumulative measures ranged from .6 to .8. Repeatabilities of noncumulative measures of profitability were approximately .4 for total profit and .3 for the other two measures. Correlations between economic variables in first lactation and the three measures of lifetime net profitability show that first lactation total income (correlations .41 to .64), value of product (.42 to .65), value of fat (.37 to .59), value of protein (.46 to .65), feed cost (.3 3 to .57), mastitis cost (−.20 to −.44), and services cost (−.15 to −.36) were significant predictors of the lifetime traits. Value of calves, salvage value, total expense, and initial inventory cost were of little predictive value. Correlations of most economic variables with herd life were low. Correlations of heifer body weight at different ages and age at first calving with all the different lifetime measures of economic efficiency were near zero. Number of services and days open had low negative associations with measures of economic efficiency.

Mastitis, the continuing efforts towards control

In this review, presented at the 10th Congress of the World Association for Buiatrics (Mexico City, August 1978), the author deals with production losses and the cost of mastitis, and goes on to discuss machine milking management and the effects of various machine milking systems on the disease. Causative organisms and their transmission are reviewed, and disease diagnosis mentioned. Finally control of the disease is reviewed; the author stresses the value of dry-period treatment, in particular for streptococcal infection, and the need for hygiene and the use of teat-dips in any control programme.