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Subclinical mastitis.
The most important economic loss from mastitis is subclinical mastitis, for every clinical case of mastitis in a dairy herd there can be 25 or more subclinical cases. These subclinical cases are the main cause of increased cell counts:
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Mastitis risk factors –Five Point Plan.
The main risk factors for mastitis are shown below:
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The Five Point Plan.
The five point plan was established by the Milk Marketing Board in the 1950’s in order to counteract the mastitis risk factors – the points are still valid today:
1. Hygiene: i.e. improving operator hygiene during milking such as the wearing of gloves and using disposable teat wipes.
2. The correct maintenance of milking machine equipment.
3. Post-milking teat disinfection.
4. The prompt identification of clinical cases, veterinary treatment and the culling of chronic recurrent cases.
5. Dry Cow Therapy.
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