In Practice 22: 382-394 (2000)
© 2000 British Veterinary Association

The environment and mastitis

¹ Predominantly Dairy, Practice in Shepton Mallet, Somerset

THE past 30 or so years have seen a considerable reduction in the incidence of clinical mastitis, with the national average now 43 cases per 100 cows per annum compared with over 120 in 1968. This reduction has been achieved through the adoption of the then National Institute for Research in Dairying's ‘Five Point Plan’ which has reduced the amount of contagious mastitis and has led to a fall in the national cell count from over 600,000/ml in the late 1960s to under 180,000/ml in 1998. Over this period the level of environmental clinical mastitis has increased slightly. This may be due to the larger herd sizes, the pressures put on the environment during the housed period and the greater milk flow rates associated with higher yields which have produced an increasingly open teat canal. This article discusses the principal risk factors associated with environmental mastitis and sets out a number of practical control measures.

Note:

Much of the information contained in this article has been published previously in ‘Mastitis Control in Dairy Herds’ and is reprinted with the permission of Farming Press. The authors are grateful to Catherine Girdler for secretarial assistance.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. R. Amory, P. Kloosterman, Z. E. Barker, J. L. Wright, R. W. Blowey, and L. E. Green Risk Factors for Reduced Locomotion in Dairy Cattle on Nineteen Farms in The Netherlands J Dairy Sci, May 1, 2006; 89(5): 1509 - 1515. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]