Natural Prevention
Animal Welfare: Practice of breeding and raising livestock.
- Strong immune systems
- Vitamins and trace elements
- Organic mineral packages, kelp meal and Redmond salt
- Cleanliness
- Clean or change bedding regularly
- Wet/dirty stalls- breeding grounds for bacteria-cause mastitis
- Keep a rotation of staff during the day and at night to clean up the feces and stalls since mastitis can be transmitted through the feces.
- Proper udder prep at milking time
Animal Welfare: Practice of breeding and raising livestock.
- Grazing System
- Low level of production and on improved pastures.
- Grazing with supplementary feed.
- Supplemental feed brought or cultivated.
- Grasses and herbs may contain up to 80% of water. Although cows need a lot of water, roughage.
- Grass can be cultivated (Pennisetum, Napier, elephant grass, Panicum).
- Cow needs: up to 45 litres a day.
- One week before calving give some extra high quality feed to strengthen the animal.
- Disease Prevention
- Good hygiene
- Clean and disinfect equipment. Remember disinfection is useless without cleaning thoroughly beforehand.
- Water. Always ensure free access to clean and fresh water.
- Good feed and regular feeding.
- Shelter for protection against bad weather (rain, wind and cold, or intensive sunshine).
- Regular light exercise
- A peaceful environment (avoid unrest and stress).
- Preventive treatment against worms can be given before and after the rainy season.
- Ticks may also attack the udder, causing the loss of a teat, thus making a milk cow less productive.
- Reducing the exposure to Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus dysgalactiae is by dipping or spraying the teats in disinfectant immediately after milking.
- Hypochlorite, iodophor and chlorhexidine are used in the disinfectant.
- Adopt good cow management practices as the essential basis for a mastitis control routine (eg. feeding, housing, hygiene). Mastitis is unlikely to be controlled with neglected, underfed cows kept under stress in dirty conditions.
- Reduce exposure to pathogens.
- Do not house or corral cattle under dirty conditions, Preferably change organic bedding materials daily or use sand for bedding.
- Wash dirty udders before milking with clean running water preferably with the hand, a disposable paper towel or a disinfected cloth and dry thoroughly. Do not wash with contaminated cloths and water.
- Adopt practices that prevent the occurrence of teat lesions (sores, chaps and teat damage). If they occur use a teat dip or spray containing a emollient.
- Additional benefits can be obtained by disinfecting hands before milking each cow, using individual paper udder cloths, dipping teat cups in disinfectant before each cow is milked, and ‘back flushing’. These reduce bacterial exposure but their effects are secondary to those described above.
- Reduce the chances of pathogens penetrating the teat duct by:
- Avoiding teat injury or fly attack.
- Using a milking machine that is correctly tested, and maintained.
- Using a milking machine modified to prevent ‘reverse flow’ and ‘impacts’.
- Minimize the effects of vacuum fluctuations by avoiding ‘liner-slip’, fitting ‘shields’ or ‘non-return valves’ into short milk tubes or liners.
- Reduce the duration of infections by:
- Detecting clinical mastitis by examining fore-milk or fitting ‘mastitis detectors’ into the long milk tubes.
- Giving intramammary infusions of antibiotics under veterinary supervision to clinically affected cows and keep a record
- Treating cows at drying off with infusions of antibiotics recommended by a veterinarian.
- Cull cows with repeated clinical mastitis.
- Reduce mastitis in non-lactating growing cattle or cows in the dry period.
- Avoid using low lying grazing land and damp wooded areas where flies are common. Move cattle from pastures known to give problems with mastitis.
- Adopt good fly control measures.
- Treat cows at drying off with antibiotics recommended by veterinarian. All cows should be treated, alternatively treat cows that have previously shown signs of infection. “Drying off” means stopping the milking process completely so the lining of the udder could heal properly.
- There are three stages to the drying off period:
- Involution: This is when the milking process first stops and the cows finally dry up completely.The lining of the teats reduces and gets smaller. The teat canal becomes blocked with keratin and this process usually takes around 2 weeks.
- Steady State: After involution, the udder stops producing milk completely. Recovery occurs during this period, so it is imperative that this stage lasts longer than 2 weeks. If it is less than 2 weeks, then that means lower production of milk since the cows will have a small amount of time healing.
- Colostrum Production: This is when the milking machine is turned on, the udder starts to enlarge, and the lining becomes active. The process of lactation starts during this stage and it normally lasts around 2 weeks.