THE 2016 MILK SA MPO MASTITIS SURVEY – GENERAL UDDER HEALTH

Subclinical mastitis is usually of greater significance, clinical mastitis being but the tip of the iceberg. Subclinical mastitis is monitored on either a herd and/or an individual cow basis and measured as somatic cell count (SCC) or conductivity. There are also practices that help reduce intramammary infections thereby reducing the SCC.The question is whether all practices are regularly done on SA farms, which was the topic of the investigation by the authors cited below.

An online survey was deployed to the MPO membership of approximately 1,700 dairy farmers in April of 2016. Ancillary data collection continued through December 2016. Twenty of the farms were selected for on-site visits as a means to verify and collect additional data. These herds were selected on a regional basis and were milking 200 cows and more. The areas of investigation were 1) general herd information, 2) employees, 3) veterinarians and consultants, 4) nutrition, 5) housing, 6) the milking parlour, 7) the milking routine and 8) udder health (including clinical and subclinical mastitis).

Some results of relevance to udder health are shown in the table below.

The routine evaluation of cows, groups and/or herds for SCC was relatively low at 67% for cows and groups and 53% for whole herd testing. The majority of high SCC cows (67.3%) are treated. Only 1.0% of dairies reported to clip or flame udders. Conclusions: The routine monitoring of udder health by regular identification of high SCC cows is standard practice in many parts of the world, yet infrequently implemented in South Africa. Cleanliness of the udder and teat end condition does not appear to be of concern in the majority of the dairies reporting or visited.

Reference:

N.  Schlimmer, L.  Leenaerts & M. van der Leek, 2017. The 2016 Milk SA MPO Mastitis Survey – General Udder Health. In: Proc. of the SALH Conference, Champagne Sports Resort, KZN, 5-7 June 2017