Speaking of the three words "mastitis", people often think of clinical mastitis first. But mastitis is not limited to this. It can be divided into different stages, involving many links, and requires a full range of understanding, prevention and management. So what the ranch needs to do is the full-cycle management of mastitis.
The following is expanded from the following seven aspects:
01 Data analysis of left bracket mastitis
Whether it is clinical mastitis or subclinical mastitis, in order to have an accurate judgment, there must be detailed data analysis. For clinical mastitis, it is necessary to know the number of the affected cow, the area of the affected milk, the number of lactation days, the parity, the pathogenic bacteria, the severity level, and the distribution of the barn. For subclinical mastitis, it is necessary to understand the number of somatic cells in the large tank of milk, the number and types of bacteria, the results of individual cattle DHI, and the incidence of cryptic milk in the milk area. Moreover, you will find that the actual proportion of subclinical mastitis is very large, which may be several times or even dozens of times that of clinical mastitis.
So, how to analyze the data?
Example 1: This is the incidence of mastitis with different lactation days in a 10,000-head farm. The abscissa is the number of lactation days, and the ordinate is the number of onsets. A large amount of data proves that the incidence of early lactation is the highest, especially in the first week of lactation. Although from individual cases, it may be related to factors such as the month of delivery of the cow, heat stress, etc., after a period of data accumulation, it can be found that the high incidence of mastitis in newly born cows is closely related to the management of the dry milk period. This is a situation that exists in many large ranches. The incidence of mastitis in the early lactation period is relatively high, and then the incidence of mastitis gradually decreases, but the degree and proportion of the incidence of mastitis are relatively large.


Example 2: The following table shows the pathogenic bacteria infections of cows of different parities in a ranch. If you only look at the number of sick cows, the incidence of different parities is not very different, but the second parity cows are more sick. Is this Does it mean that cows with low parity have more disease? After carefully calculating the proportion of sick cows, it is found that the higher the parity, the more lactation days, the higher the incidence. This is completely different from the absolute number of cows in different parities, and it also points to another direction of treatment.


Example 3: Let's look at the example of observing by cow number again. After sorting the data of sick cows by cow number, the recurrence of sick cows can be observed in the left picture below. The same cow will be sick 1 to 2 times (red) in different months or even in the same month, indicating that the bacteriological cure may not be achieved. This result provides a basis for the selection and evaluation of antibiotics.
The data analysis in the right figure below is more detailed and accurate to the repeated incidence of the same milk area (blue). If the same pathogenic bacteria infection occurs in the same milk area of a cow, it may not be cured; if a cow is infected Similar infections in different milk areas, or infections of different pathogens, may indicate that the cow’s immunity is poor; if this situation is more concentrated, it may be that the cow’s nipple ends are damaged or the cleanliness of the nipple ends is not enough, and this The result may come from poor management of the environment, suggesting that the ranch needs more than just mastitis treatment.


Example 4: The figure below shows the distribution data of different pathogenic bacteria that cause clinical mastitis in foreign countries. The situation of each farm is different, and there will be some differences in the types and quantities of pathogenic bacteria. Overall, 1/3 of gram-positive bacteria, 1/3 of gram-negative bacteria, and 1/3 have no growth of pathogenic bacteria. However, if the test results differ greatly, some other considerations, such as the accuracy of sampling and detection, must be done.


Summary: Clinical mastitis should be analyzed according to different dimensions such as monthly, lactation month, incidence level, milk area, parity, and pathogenic bacteria. According to the results of data analysis, the reasons should be excavated on the spot, and the key points should be investigated one by one. Based on the key issues found, a personalized rectification plan is proposed, taking into account factors such as the geographic location of the ranch, the weather, and the health of the cattle herd, to determine executable goals, and review them regularly.


02Left square bracket The process management of the milk parlor Left square bracket
What factors should be paid attention to for those engaged in mastitis management and control in the ranch? In addition to mechanical hardware, we must also pay attention to the operational level, that is, human handling, such as how to formulate SOP, whether human operation is consistent with SOP, and whether correct operation achieves appropriate results.
Example 1: To evaluate the cleanliness of the nipple end of a cow, it is found that the proportion of cows with a score of 3 and 4 is too large. This indicates that the nipple cleaning operation is not up to the standard, or the nipple cleaning operation is in line with the process, but the cow's body is too dirty and the nipple is too dirty , It's really clean and not clean. In this case, the ranch must think about how to do better environmental management? Is another person added to do the repeated operation of nipple cleaning?


Example 2: Regarding the pasture soaking cup, the big barrel in the picture below is the configured bath liquid, and the small barrel is the bath liquid that has been used for a period of time. I found in a ranch that the bath liquid in the small bucket had not been changed when it was used for the 13th cow. The liquid in it was not a clear brown under normal conditions, but a cream color. This also needs to be carefully observed and replaced in time.


Example 3: The grading of the end of the nipple of dairy cows is done regularly by the ranch, some ranch do it once a month, some do it once more than a month. We should feel the condition of the nipples with our hands to see if there is a ring at the base, whether the nipples are hard, purple, or red, to determine the proportion of abnormalities, these operations should be more.




03Left Bracket Clinical Mastitis TreatmentLeft Bracket
The treatment of clinical mastitis is the most concerned part of all veterinarians. In addition to the use of antibiotics, it is important to emphasize anti-inflammatory. Mastitis is also an inflammation, which requires anti-inflammatory treatment.


A multi-country joint experiment (above) was conducted in Europe, mainly for mastitis with abnormal breast milk or breast area but not accompanied by systemic symptoms (grades 1 and 2). In these countries, different veterinarians have used antibiotics according to their operating habits, but half of the cows have been treated with anti-inflammatory treatments, and the other half have not. After that, from the diagnosis of the disease to the 7, 14, and 21 days of treatment, the cows were tested for somatic cell counts.
How much does one shot of anti-inflammatory drugs affect the number of somatic cells? The blue group used milk-injected antibiotics + anti-inflammatory drugs (Midajia), and the yellow group only used milk-injected antibiotics. On the 14th day of treatment, the number of somatic cells in the blue group was 550,000 cells/mL and the number in the yellow group was 710,000 cells/mL, indicating that the use of Medaga in combination with the treatment of mastitis can significantly reduce the number of somatic cells in the subsequent dairy cows. Reached 23%.
How much effect does one shot of anti-inflammatory drugs have on reproductive performance? Scientists have further confirmed through a large number of experiments that anti-inflammatory drugs can significantly improve the subsequent reproductive performance of mastitis cows. For example, the conception rate of the first breeding will increase by 10%; previously, 2.9 doses of frozen semen were required to successfully fertilize, and after a single injection of Mitaga, 2.4 doses were required, and the average number of inseminations was reduced by 0.5; the percentage of pregnant cattle at 120 days postpartum was reduced from 31 % Increased to 40%.
How much does anti-inflammatory affect the overall treatment? For grade 1 and grade 2 clinical mastitis, direct use of good antibiotics (such as Eufaxin) and a shot of anti-inflammatory drugs (such as Medaga) can achieve good therapeutic effects. If it is grade 3 clinical mastitis, measures such as sugar supplementation, electrolyte supplementation, and calcium supplementation should be taken according to the cattle's own condition. In this way, the first is to increase the bacteriological cure rate by 32% (that is, the cure rate from 50% to 66%), to reduce subsequent recurrence and repeated treatment problems; the second is to reduce the risk of death by 42%, and reduce the risk of mastitis. The impact of cattle reproductive performance; thirdly, it reduces the number of somatic cells in cows after treatment by 23%, reduces the impact of recovering cows after clinical mastitis on large cans of milk, and improves milk quality. One of the reasons for paying attention to this part of cattle is that the incidence of mastitis can reach more than 8% in individual months in some southern pastures. If it is as high as 10% to 30%, it will inevitably affect the large tank of milk.


04Left square bracket litter management and reserve cattle environmental management Left square bracket We found in some ranches that we served, some ranches have higher moisture content in litter, and their mastitis incidence rate is usually higher than that of the same region, the same environmental temperature, and the same environment The humidity of the pasture is high. Therefore, the moisture management of litter is very important.


Environmental management includes two parts: the milk parlor and the outside of the milk parlor. Assessing the environment of the milking parlor, you can check the cleanliness of the hindquarters, hooves, and nipple ends of the lactating cows. The cleanliness gradually decreases from left to right in the above picture. Especially for bath baths, people usually see people go to the milking parlor for inspection. The milking workers will use bath baths to be more standardized, so observers can go to the cow return passage to see how the bath baths are attached and change them. One way to troubleshoot.


Outside the milk hall, including the waiting room, milking passage, delivery room, cow barn, feeding trough, etc. If there are many bacteria in the environment, it will also cause a high incidence of mastitis. For example, the pasture in the picture above uses fine sand as bedding, which is a very good inorganic bedding, but the cows still suffer from mastitis. The main reason is that feces accumulated in some places in the milking tunnel. After the cow passes by, the hoof legs are dirty. When lying down, the front nipple directly sticks to the hoof legs, causing infection at the end of the nipple. In addition, if the stress of driving the cow is greater, the end of the nipple will also be contaminated with more manure. Therefore, if the environment is well managed, the cows are less stressed, and the incidence of mastitis will also decrease.


05Left bracket treatment of subclinical mastitis during lactation
The management and control of subclinical mastitis during lactation is very critical. The subclinical mastitis of well-controlled farms is 10%-20%, the well-controlled farms are 20%-30%, and the poorer farms can even reach 70%, which will lead to a comparison of the somatic cell count of large tanks of milk. high.
Not every cow with subclinical mastitis needs immediate treatment. The Boehringer Cattle Business Unit has innovated the dairy cow health cooperation model of the pasture. It can help the pasture through projects. We will first detect which type of pathogenic bacteria are caused, and use the pathogenic bacteria detection results as a reference basis, and then make plans with the pasture Discuss and formulate.


For example, for cows with a relatively high somatic cell count, if it is caused by Streptococcus agalactiae, antibiotics +/- anti-inflammatory drugs can be used for lactation treatment, because Streptococcus agalactia itself is more sensitive to antibiotics. If it is caused by Staphylococcus aureus, high parity dairy cows or cows with recurrent illnesses are very unlikely to be cured. They can be isolated first. The cows in the late lactation stage are dried in advance, and then dry milk period antibiotics are used. Long-term high concentrations of antibiotics can increase bacteria Learn the cure rate. If it is caused by mycoplasma, because most antibiotics have no effect on mycoplasma, the sick cattle can be isolated first, and they will be given priority when there is a place for elimination. If it is other pathogenic bacteria, such as gram-negative bacteria or other pathogens in the streptococcus group, antibiotic treatment can be temporarily omitted. At this time, frequent adjustment of the herd will cause greater stress on the cattle, and the number of somatic cells will be right at the end of lactation. If a large can of milk has a big impact, then choose to dry the milk in advance.
Specifically, for high somatic cell counts, farms with DHI data and farms without DHI data can refer to the following factors:


06Left Bracket Dry Cow ManagementLeft Bracket
The dry period of normal cows is to restore the mammary glands and prepare for lactation in the next parity. For cows suffering from mastitis, the veterinarian’s treatment goals during the dry period have a new change. On the one hand, it is to eliminate the existing infection, which is the first thing to do in the dry period; on the other hand, it is necessary to prevent new infections. , Throughout the entire dry period.


Preventing new infections remains a top priority. The two time points when the risk of infection is relatively high are the two or three weeks when the milk has just dried and the two or three weeks near the new birth. When the milk is just dried, choosing a good dry-milk-period antibiotic can produce a certain degree of protection, but the effect at the end of the dry-milk period is relatively weak, and it cannot even kill pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, prevention of new infections is the top priority during the entire dry period.
As long as the quality of antibiotics in the dry milk period is reliable, the difference between the cure rate of bacteria and the rate of new infections in the dry milk period will not be very large, even including the incidence of mastitis within 100 days after delivery. But how to do prevention is different from farm to farm, which also makes some cattle susceptible to infection, and some cattle are not susceptible to infection.


Use nipple sealant. Infected cows are mostly because the nipples at the dry stage are not well sealed. Generally speaking, the higher the milk volume and the better the milk production efficiency of the pasture, the more likely it is that the nipple ends will open.
The best treatment is to form a physical barrier at the end of the nipple, that is, choose a better nipple sealant. The main components of the sealant produced by different manufacturers are basically the same, but the product technology is somewhat different, and some are more delicate, and this product works better. For example, Umichin's sealing effect in the entire dry milk process is better, and the stress on the cows is relatively small, and it can be easily removed when the cows are newly born.


07Left bracket isolation and elimination of left bracket
Isolation and elimination cannot be avoided. Which cows with mastitis should be eliminated?
In the first category, the number of somatic cells remains high, especially if it is still high after a dry milk, then the subsequent lactating menstrual cells of the next parity may still be high.
The second category, the udder structure is not good, some two nipples milking, three nipples milking, even one nipple is still milking cows, will not create positive economic value to the pasture.
The third category is cows with repeated relapses (more than 3 times). Some sick cows have been treated for 5 to 7 times, and even cows that have been treated more than 10 times in a parity. Such cows will definitely not make a profit for the farm.
In the fourth category, bacteriological culture results show mycoplasma infection, or recurrence of golden grapes in high parity cows. The cure rate of such cows is almost zero, so there is no therapeutic value.
In a thousand-head pasture, if 2% of the cows suffering from mastitis are eliminated, the impact on the pasture will not be significant. However, in the severity level, if the proportion of severely ill cows eliminated is much higher than that of mild to moderate mastitis; if the proportion of severe mastitis is large, for example, grade 3 mastitis itself accounts for 30%, and 70% of these 30% If the cattle are eliminated, the loss to the pasture will be very large, so the isolation and elimination must be taken seriously by the pasture.