Bovine Mastitis

Dr. Anoop Singh (M.V.Sc)

 What’s mastitis ?

Inflammation of one or more quarters of
the udder

Normal Inflamed
Mammae = breast

-itis = Latin suffix for

inflammation Swelling
pain
warm
redness
 What’s the significance of bovine
mastitis ?
The most 
Causes significant economic losses
costly
disease
to the dairy industry in India
affecting
dairy dairy
cattle

$ 200/cow/year
throughout
the world

$ 2 billion/year

cull RIP
What are the health concerns of
mastitis ?

Animal health
 Loss of functional quarter
 Lowered milk production
 Death of cow


Human health
 Poor quality milk
 antibiotic residues in milk
 How severe can mastitis be ?

Subclinical Mastitis 
Clinical Mastitis
 ~ 90 -95% of all mastitis cases  ~ 5 - 10% of all mastitis cases
  Inflamed udder
Udder appears normal
  Clumps and clots in milk
Milk appears normal
 Acute type
 Elevated SCC (score 3-5)
 major type of clinical mastitis
 Lowered milk output (~ 10%)  bad milk
 Longer duration  loss of appetite
 depression
 prompt attention needed
 Chronic type
 bad milk
 cow appears healthy
What causes mastitis ?

Bacteria ( ~ 70%)

Yeasts and molds ( ~ 2%)

Unknown ( ~ 28%)
 physical
 trauma
 weather extremes
Where do these organisms come
from ?

Infected udder

Environment
 bedding
 soil
 water
 manure

Replacement animals
 BACTERIA
Streptococci
Field
language

Environmental 
Contagious
  S. agalactiae
S. uberis
 S. dysgalactiae
 S. equinus 
Clinical mastitis
“Streps” 
Cannot live outside
“Environmentals” 
More subclinical the udder
mastitis 
Treated easily with
“Environmental
Strep”

Environment penicillin

Predominant early
and late lactation
 BACTERIA
Staphylococci
Field

Staph. aureus
language  Summer mastitis
 Spread by milking equipment and milker’s hands
 Persistent, difficult to eliminate
 If unattended leads to chronic mastitis
“Staph” 
Other Staph
 Found normally on skin
“Staph.  Lowers milk yield
Mastitis”  Elevated SCC
 Easily responds to antibiotics
 Relapse frequently seen
 BACTERIA
Coliforms

Groups of organisms
 E. coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter


Environmental source (manure, bedding, barns,
floors and cows)

J-5 vaccine

Coliforms cause acute clinical mastitis
 high temp, and inflamed quarter
 watery milk with clots and pus
 toxemia
Other organisms

Pseudomonas aeruginosa
 outbreaks of clinical mastitis

Serratia
 outbreaks of clinical mastitis

Corynebacterium pyogenes

Fungi

Candida

Mycoplasma bovis
 How does mastitis develop ?

Cow
 Predisposing conditions
 Existing trauma (milking machine, heat
or cold, injury)
 Teat end injury
 Lowered immunity (following calving,
Organism surgery)
 Nutrition

Organisms
Cow Environment

Environment
Process of infection
Organisms invade the udder through
teat canal

Migrate up the teat canal and colonize the

secretory cells

Colonized organisms produce toxic substances

harmful to the milk producing cells
 The cow’s immune system send white blood cells
(Somatic cells) to fight the organisms

recovery clinical subclinical

How is mastitis diagnosed ?

Physical examination
 Signs of inflammation
 Empty udder
 Differences in firmness
 Unbalanced quarters


Cowside tests
 California Mastitis test
How is mastitis diagnosed ?

Culture analysis
 The most reliable
and accurate
method
 costly ($ 5- 12)
How do you treat mastitis ?

Clinical mastitis
 Strip quarter every 2 hours
 Oxytocin valuable
 high temp, give aspirin
 Seek veterinary assistance
 Treatment with penicillins


Subclinical mastitis
 Questionable

Attitude adjustment !!!!!!

Don’t expect SCC to go down ASAP (4-5 weeks !)
Discard milk from treated cows (double jeopardy !)
 THE 10 STEPS TO MASTITIS CONTROL

1: Prepare cows properly for milking
 Udder preparation is pre-dipping with a dip labeled for pre-dipping. Pre-
dips lower the risk of new infections by 70%
 Pre-dips
 Iodophors 0.0 -1.0 %
 Chlorhexidine 0.2%
 Quats 0.5%
 LDBSA 0.2%
 Hypochlorous acid
 Bleach
 Use single service paper towels, dry teats before machine-application.

2: Have a good milking system
 Milking equipment should be adequate in size, functioning
properly, and regularly cleaned and maintained
 Correctly use proper functioning milking machines and
properly prepare udders
 Attach teat cups after thorough cleaning and drying of teats
 Provide stable vacuum
 Check for slipping of teat cup liners
 Shut of vacuum before removing teat cups.

3: Apply and remove machine carefully
 Properly adjust to prevent liner slippage.
 Remove machine when cow is milked out, shut off vacuum at claw
before removal.


4: Dip each teat after each milking using a germicidal teat dip.
 Post-dips seal the teat ends temporarily for 6 to 8 hours
 A must for long term mastitis control program


5: Monitor your mastitis score (DHI-SCC, WMT) regularly. Take action
when significant increases occur.

6: Treat clinical cows, follow label recommendations, treat aseptically. Withhold
treated cows' milk from milk supply.


7: Segregate chronic mastitis cows, milk them last, cull when necessary.
 cows with chronic mastitis serve as reservoirs of organisms and could infect
susceptible cows


8: Dry treat each quarter using partial insertion techniques with an approved dry
cow treatment at drying off.
 Cure rate is twice high as that during lactation
 Lowers the risk of clinical and subclinical mastitis during subsequent lactation

9: Keep cows clean, udders free from soil and manure.
 Fence off wet, swampy areas.
 Keep free stalls and stanchions bedded properly.
 Keep calving areas clean, properly bedded (straw
preferred).


10: Properly feed and care for cows.
Summary

Mastitis is primarily a management
problem


Mastitis can be controlled


Prevention programs work best when
correctly followed
Milking Procedures for Quality
Milk
 Milking Procedures for Quality Milk

PREREQUISITES
 Maintain clean, well ventilated bedded areas for cows

 Segregate known infected cows. Milk them last or with designated

equipment

 CMT all fresh cows by the 6th milking

 Milk all treated cows last

 Changerubber inflations every 60 days or 1000 cow milkings

whichever comes first
PREREQUISITES
 Check the milking systems or units periodically for function
and reliability

 Clip or singe the udder hair

 Examine periodically teats and teat ends

 Mastitis
treatments should be done by one or two persons and
should be done after milking

 Cloth towels should be washed after every use

Simple Steps
“Two trips to each cow will provide a
routine to Maxmize Milk Quality and
Parlor Performance”…. Dr. Andy Johnson
Step One………Strip and Predip

Step Two………Dry and Apply

 Standardized Milking Procedures
Stanchion / Tiestall Parlor

Wear Gloves 
Wear Gloves

Wipe off excess dry manure,

Wipe off excess dry manure,
straw and bedding straw and bedding

Strip each teat into a stripcup

Strip each teat into a
stripcup

Dip teats with an approved
pre-dip

Dip teats with an approved 
Dip 3-4 cows
pre-dip

Allow the pre-dip to react for

Allow the pre-dip to react for at least 30 sec.
at least 30 sec.
Stanchion/ Tiestall Parlor

Clean teat and teat ends using

Return to the first cow and
single paper towel or individual clean teat and teat ends using
towel cloth a single paper towel or
individual towel cloth

The teats must be dried for at

The teats must be dried for at
least 15 sec least 15 sec

Attach milking machines

Attach milking machines
immediately after teats are dried immediately after teats are

Dip teats with post-dip dried
immediately after milking 
Dip teats with post-dip
immediately after milking

EACH STEP IS A CRITICAL POINT !!!!!!!

HACCP-based concepts for
implementing proper milking
procedures in Pennsylvania
Steps involved in employing HACCP-based
concepts for establishing proper milking
procedures

STEP ONE
 Educate owners and milkers about implementing a
standardized milking procedure (Benefits !!!!!!)

 IF a dairy farm initiates and shows sustained interest

 Establish ground rules
 They will have to be proactive and adopt changes
 TEAM EFFORT !!!

STEP TWO
 Establish a team ( owner, milkers, veterinarian, facilitator)
 Mission statement
 Goals and timeline
 Written Procedures
 Protocols
 Critical Limits ( SCC > 250,000)
 Recording Keeping
 Milking time/milking
 Bulk Tank Temp; end of 1 hr of milking
 Sanitation
 Schedule team meetings to review the process

STEP THREE
 Train milkers and owners in implementing the standardized
milking procedure

STEP FOUR
 Monitor the application of the standardized milking procedure
 Floor tests (each step is a critical point !)
 Laboratory tests (SPC or BTSCC)
 Monitor records

STEP FIVE
 Establish corrective actions to be implemented if milk quality
critical limits have exceeded.
thank you