Cow, Farm, and Management Factors During the Dry Period that Determine the Rate of Clinical Mastitis After Calving

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to investigate cow characteristics, farm facilities, and herd management strategies during the dry period to examine their joint influence on the rate of clinical mastitis after calving. Data were collected over a 2-yr period from 52 commercial dairy farms throughout England and Wales. Cows were separated for analysis into those housed for the dry period (8,710 cow-dry periods) and those at pasture (9,964 cow-dry periods). Multilevel models were used within a Bayesian framework with 2 response variables, the occurrence of a first case of clinical mastitis within the first 30 d of lactation and time to the first case of clinical mastitis during lactation. A variety of cow and herd management factors were identified as being associated with an increased rate of clinical mastitis and these were found to occur throughout the dry period. Significant cow factors were increased parity and at least one somatic cell count ≥200,000 cells/mL in the 90 d before drying off. A number of management factors related to hygiene were significantly associated with an increased rate of clinical mastitis. These included measures linked to the administration of dry-cow treatments and management of the early and late dry-period accommodation and calving areas. Other farm factors associated with a reduced rate of clinical mastitis were vaccination with a leptospirosis vaccine, selection of dry-cow treatments for individual cows within a herd rather than for the herd as a whole, routine body condition scoring of cows at drying off, and a pasture rotation policy of grazing dry cows for a maximum of 2 wk before allowing the pasture to remain nongrazed for a period of 4 wk. Models demonstrated a good ability to predict the farm incidence rate of clinical mastitis in a given year, with model predictions explaining over 85% of the variability in the observed data. The research indicates that specific dry-period management strategies have an important influence on the rate of clinical mastitis during the next lactation.

Somaticell® as a screening method for somatic cell count from bovine milk

“…Similar values had already been used by other authors (BREEN et al, 2009). It is well established that cows with a SCC higher than 200,000 cells mL -1 are more likely to have an IMI than cows with a lower SCC (GREEN et al, 2007). In our study, we found out that Somaticell ® had a high sensitivity (90.59%) and low specificity (39.01%) for the threshold of 205,000 cells mL -1 , which indicates that it is a useful tool for detecting an increase in SCC, but possibly presenting some falsepositives results.…”

The Influence of Cow Factors on the Incidence of Clinical Mastitis in Dairy Cows

“…Somatic cell count is widely known to be an important risk factor for CM (e.g., Beaudeau et al, 1998;Suriyasathaporn et al, 2000;Green et al, 2007). Results from our study indicate that SCC in the previous month (SCC1) and SCC in the previous lactation (SCC2) are significant cow-specific risk factors for an increased IRCM.…”

“…To determine the association between previous SCC and IRCM in the current month of lactation, SCC in the previous month in lactation (SCC1) was determined. Also, SCC of the previous lactation was included (Whist and Østerå s, 2006;Green et al, 2007). This variable was defined as the geometric mean SCC from all available test-day records from the previous lactation (SCC2).…”

A survey of dairy calf management practices in some producing regions in Brazil

“…When the criteria for drying was daily milk production, the minimum milk production to maintain lactating cows was 5 L for 59% of the properties, and between 15 and 20 L for 13% of the interviewees. The extension of the dry period has an important impact on the cash flow of the property and the performance of the animals because it interferes with the relationship between productive (lactating cows) and unproductive animals (growing animals and dry cows) (Santschi et al, 2011), affects the incidence of metabolic problems in the post-calving period (Bachman and Schairer, 2003), influences mastitis prevention (Green et al, 2007), and also affects colostrum production (Machado Neto et al, 1995).…”