Livestock Matters - Spring 2016

17 / 20

SPRING 2016 ISSUE LIVESTOCK MATTERS 16
Practical Guide
2. Taking the sample 3. What to do with
the samples
i. Remove the lid from a sterile pot
(as supplied by your veterinary
surgeon) and hold the pot in one
hand at a 45° incline to the teat end
(Figure 4), then milk out the sample
from the teat with the other hand.
Only a few millilitres are required,
not a whole pot full - see Figure 5.
ii. Avoid touching the inside of the
pot and the lid with the teat or
your hand and replace the lid as
soon as possible.
iii. Label the pot with the cow’s
number and the ID of the affected
quarter.
i. Take the sample to your veterinary
practice for submission to their own
laboratory or referral elsewhere.
ii. Samples taken from clinical cases
of mastitis can be frozen in the
farm freezer and submitted as a
batch when convenient without
significant loss of viable mastitis
bacteria from the milk.
iii. If you intend to take samples from
a group of high cell count cows
with no clinical signs, then consult
your veterinary surgeon prior to
sampling. These samples, taken
from identified high cell count
quarters, should not be frozen so
are best taken at the start of the
week to allow immediate postage
(if necessary), receipt and
processing at the laboratory on
a week day.
Identification of the high risk mastitis
pathogens on your farm plays a key part in
formulating a mastitis control plan. It helps
decision making in selecting appropriate
antibiotics for milking cow and dry cow
therapy. Understanding which bacteria are
causing problems will help you and your vet
together to look at the relevant aspects of
milking routine, cows’ environment and cow
health and target specific areas in order to
reduce the mastitis challenge.
FarmSkills Environmental Mastitis Course
Why not increase your knowledge environmental mastitis and how, working with your
vet, this disease can be managed to minimise costs and losses associated with it?
The FarmSkills Environmental Mastitis
course provides an opportunity for dairy
farmers to further their knowledge of the
principle environmental mastitis pathogens,
the basic epidemiology of these infections
and the key areas of control. During the
course, delegates learn how to:
l Define mastitis and understand the
cow’s defences against it.
l Recognise mastitis and use a CMT.
l The principle environmental mastitis
pathogens, S. uberis, E. coli.
l Calculate the economic cost of mastitis.
l Appreciate the welfare cost of mastitis.
l Identify the causes of environmental
mastitis i.e. milking time infections,
inter-milking infections and dry period
infections.
l Identify and reduce environmental
causes of mastitis.
l The critical control points of
environmental mastitis control;
reducing environmental challenge,
optimising immune function, milking
machine maintenance and dry
cow therapy.
For further details and to find
courses running in your local
area visit
Figure 4 Figure 5