The cost of mastitis is not just the cost of the antibiotic tubes you buy from your vet. Treatment costs are generally <15% of the cost of mastitis

Mastitis management should be focussed on preventing disease, but if mastitis does occur then it needs to be promptly identified and treated. Determining which antibiotics to use for first-line treatment should be based on a thorough understanding of the main pathogens on your farm.

Mastitis is one of the commonest diseases of dairy cattle; in the UK recent research showed that the average rate of clinical mastitis was between 50 and 70 cases per 100 cows per year (cow-years), with many farms having significantly more.

Summer mastitis is usually a disease of non-lactating cows and heifers during the summer months.

Mastitis in cattle is usually caused by bacteria. By understanding which organisms affect your cows you can tailor a control plan specific to your farm.

Milking cows does not cause mastitis. However, failure to correctly operate and maintain the milking machine can influence the level on infection on farm.

The aim of good milking management is to maximise production of quality milk, minimise teat end damage and mastitis. The milking routine should be designed so that every cow is milked exactly the same at every milking. Only trained staff who are responsible, conscientious, and have a positive attitude, should be milking cows

Teat Scoring and monitoring overall teat health is a useful tool that can be routinely implemented into herd management protocols. It can help to reduce incidence of mastitis on farm, as well as monitoring the effectiveness of the milking process.

Environmental mastitis is mastitis caused by bacteria which spread primarily outside of the milking parlour. This doesn’t mean that they don’t spread during milking. Just like cows infected by contagious bacteria, cows infected by environmental bacteria can contaminate the cluster and spread infection to other cows during milking