Clinical Mastitis

The factors mentioned below are what have proven to be most effective on Environmental & Contagious Clinical Mastitis in a study by the International Dairy Federation in 2009. They looked into 436 other studies and trials and the information gathered was from a very large number of herds.

Below are the most effective measures which will reduce Environmental & Contagious Clinical Mastitis on Average, ranked in order of importance.

Position Average %

Post milking teat disinfection 1 37

Optimise Feed 2 17 timeliness and consistency

Dry cow minerals 3 15

Flushing clusters 4 14

Drying off 5 13

Prevent overcrowding 6 10

Clean stalls 7 9

Using a separate cloth 8 8

Milking subclinical cases last 9 7

Keep cows standing after milking 10 9

Milking clinical cases last 11 7

Replace teat liners 12 7

Clean yards 13 6

Wash dirty udders 14 6

Treatment protocol 15 6

Prestripping 16 3

Milkers’ gloves 17 1

This doesn’t mean that the measures which are at the bottom of the list are not important. Everything on the list is important.