Investigation of Mastitis Flashcards
1
Q
Herd Health Planning
A
- Benchmark the herd- where are we now? : is the mastitis appalling? ok? or somewhere in between? Can take a measure such as SCC and graph it (on a bar chart of all your different clients/benchmarking and comparing can be helpful- they can see if they are one of the worst or best anonymously)
- Find out the problems. investigation is not straight forward - takes a lot of work
- no problem right? - no. need to give the farm SIMPLE things to do. Don’t give a laundry list of things, prioritize changes! - what we need to do as vets is help the farmers come to sensible and prioritized changes
- after you put changes in places, a few weeks later… have they improved? sometimes they don’t or even get worse! you made wrong decision, or it wasn’t an appropriate decision for that farm, farmer misunderstood the advice, farmers think they are being criticized, etc.
- Need to communicate with the owner AND the farm staff
2
Q
Targeting Mastitis
A
- Need to target: can use clinical cases for reference!
- How many cases per 100 cows a year –> one of the most sensitive measures of mastitis in the farm (this is a form of incidence-describes the new cases of mastitis)
- where as, prevalence would be the cows on the farm with clinical mastitis that day (old and new cases)
- Sometimes you will have more than 100 cases, some cows will have more than one case a year - levels can be really high sometimes
3
Q
Data
A
- keeping records is very important: such things as InterHerd (herd management software) or a book and then move over to the software
- Either way, need to make sure the information going in is accurate
- ex: if there was a cow treated for mastitis every day for 3 days (not unusual) and that goes in as 3 different cases then that would lead to a very abnormal record of how many cases there were
- Also, when is a new case a new case?
- need some definition: a month b/w a treatment of the same cow (even if it is the same infection grumbling on)–> mark as two different cases
- Need to be careful not to record the same case repeatedly bc we are treating it everyday and that treatment is going down as a new case
4
Q
Mastitis Incidence
A
- this value is really just a very rough benchmark, we really should be much lower than that
- should really be about 10 or below -but if we are over 30, then we really have a problem
- different to prevelance : this could include the chronic cases that just stay there and aren’t being recorded as new cases (could be subclinical)
- accuracy is vital and depends a lot on the farmer! - they need to be checking for it in the parlor - as well as recording it!
- gives you clinical cases only- which is just the tip of the iceberg
5
Q
Bulk Milk SCC less than 200,000
(prevalence)
A
- usually subclinical that is spreading from cow to cow
- This milk will need to get milk dumped?
6
Q
Step 2: Investigation of Mastitis
A
- Contagious normally means we have high cell counts
- Env’tal: may or may not have high cell counts, but lots of cases of clinical and nasty mastitis
7
Q
Records
A
- accuracy will be variable: sometimes farmers will not notice!
- Tubes are prescription only medicines and only getting from the vet- so keep track of how many have been distributed and how much each cow would need! - do they match up correctly? if not, are they treating them? not recording them? giving too many for one cow?
- should be about 2-3 for each case
8
Q
Look for “problem” Cows
A
- Need to do something with her
- investigate her, put her in a problem herd, or cull her—> dont do nothing!
- Look at your drug record and see if you are getting repeated treatments
9
Q
3 Options with Problem Cows
A
- Culling- can be useful if you use 5pt plan properly
- Isolate
- Bacteriology can be helpful, need to take it from the correct quarter!
- The CMT is a good test for cell count, not bacteriology
10
Q
Check Milking Routines
A
- turn up to one of the milkings -early mornings (less distractions)
- Need to work with people and explain why it is important
11
Q
Some things to look at in a Milking Parlor
A
- If the quarters are wet, there may be bacteria washing down them even if they were clean –> just simply show them how wet they are
- liner slips –> could be causing problems with vacuum fluctuations
- overmilking? - if there isnt milk flowing in the cluster, this could be damaging
- subjective decision: are the cows relaxed? Can get something called stray voltage (hard to detect), but can really affect the cows! issue with insulation in the parlor, very hard to proves (even shit everywhere could be a sign)
12
Q
Check the 5pt plan
A
- P= takes place in the parlor
- If they aren’t putting the tubes away very cleanly, could spread mastitis
- are they using teat sealants? (important)
- Has someone really come through and checked the machine?
13
Q
Environment and Cows
A
- Look at the cows for long periods of time
- scoring system for how clean they are–> can use an objective scoring system. are the score high?- could relate to mastitis levels
14
Q
Cubicle adjustment
A
- Cubicle adjustment can be very $$$
- but it is so important
15
Q
Cow Comfort Index
A
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