Udder diseases remain the leading cause of culling in Austria. Mastitis can also lead to herd problems and cause high costs.
The cell count is the benchmark for udder health. A healthy cow has a cell count of less than 100,000 cells per milliliter of milk (c/ml). First-time cows, for example, have a cell count of 30,000 to 50,000 c/ml. Therefore, cows should be closely monitored from a cell count of 100,000 c/ml, and cows in their second lactation from a cell count of more than 200,000 c/ml. The higher the cell count, the more milk yield decreases.
Increased cell counts indicate increased immune cell production and are therefore a sign of infection. The causes should be identified as quickly as possible, primarily to prevent infection of other animals and to initiate remedial and treatment measures.
Teat dipping prevents the penetration of pathogens between milkings
© Chamber of Agriculture of Upper Austria/Wolkerstorfer
Mastitis as a factor disease
Mastitis is often referred to as a multifactorial disease, meaning that several negative factors allow the pathogens to penetrate the udder and exert their pathogenic effects. Important factors include the environment, such as husbandry, climate, stable hygiene, feeding, milking, and equipment. Cows weakened by these influences or injuries have a weaker immune system.
Various pathogens cause infections
A distinction is made between udder-associated pathogens (those that live in the udder) and environmental pathogens. Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae are considered the former. Staph. aureus is a common, dangerous, and contagious mastitis pathogen.
Environmentally associated germs "stray" into the mammary gland and penetrate the udder, primarily during the inter-milking period. They originate, for example, from unclean lying surfaces, settle at the outer opening of the teat canal, and multiply rapidly there. This can potentially colonize the entire canal and spread to the mammary gland. These pathogens include, among many others, staphylococci, streptococci, and Escherichia coli (responsible for life-threatening mastitis, so-called coli mastitis). Once they have penetrated the udder, mastitis pathogens can multiply in the milk. In doing so, they release toxins or destroy udder tissue, which in turn triggers the body's immune system, causing an increase in cell counts.
More important than therapeutic attempts and wound treatments are measures to make the herd as healthy as possible (sand treatment) and to maintain it that way. This treatment requires the utmost consistency and perseverance, as results are only expected after twelve to eighteen months. The goal is to view the herd as a patient, i.e. to keep healthy animals healthy, to cure animals that are mildly or only recently ill, and to remove cows with incurable, chronic diseases from the barn. This requires the optimization of all factors related to udder health. An optimal living environment is also the basis for any therapy, as this always depends on the body's own defenses and self-healing powers. Sand treatment by a veterinarian should then serve to keep the herd healthy. This is the only way to banish mastitis from the farm in the long term.
One last tip: Farms that quickly increase their cow herds through acquisition are exposed to a certain risk of introducing infected animals into the herd—especially through the purchase of cows directly from the farm. Be sure to conduct a smear test or bacteriological examination on milking cows. You can be sure of the greatest possible safety by purchasing inspected young cows at the cattle breeding associations' breeding cattle auctions. If you feed somatic cell count milk to female calves, you run the risk of infecting your own herd with pathogens at an early stage. If you have any questions about udder health, the Cattle Advisory Service of the Upper Austria Regional Council is available to help.
Preventive measures for the udder:
- Use milking gloves
- Pre-milking
- Use wood wool, udder paper/cloth with disinfectant in a disposable manner
- Dip teats
- Intermediate disinfection of milking clusters with peracetic acid
- Regular checks - sludge test, bacteriological examinations
- Targeted treatments after BU for drying off
- Eliminate treatment-resistant cows