Managing mastitis is key to farm productivity  

Mastitis is a major disease for dairy cows affecting milk production and farm profitability in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to scientists, it presents with significant economic implications, such as drop in production, compromised milk quality, and extra costs on veterinary services.

Dr Brian Arinaitwe, a livestock expert with Zoetis, an animal health company that develops and manufactures veterinary vaccines and medicines, diagnostic products, genetic tests and bio devices, among others says an average clinical case of mastitis costs the farmer approximately Shs700,000 in management. Costs associated with a case of mastitis are most often related to milk loss, drug treatments, additional labour and withdrawal time for milk residue clearance.

A big challenge

Mastitis is an infectious disease resulting in an inflammatory reaction in the mammary gland of the cow. It is mostly characterised by various degrees of severity - ranging from mild conditions with no gross changes in the milk to a moderate level with an increase in inflammatory cells and gross changes in the milk. It may be accompanied by such signs as swelling, redness, and painfulness of the mammary glands. Mastitis can be severe with all of the above changes in the milk and signs including fever, depression even death in the most severe cases. Mastitis reduces milk production and milk quality. Almost everything that is done at milking time can contribute in some way to the risk of a cow developing mastitis.

In Uganda, hand milking is mostly practiced with minimal hand washing during milking. To make matters worse, milk is mainly delivered to mobile milk-collecting centres located under tree shades.

The use of antibiotics for common cattle diseases, such as mastitis in cows and diarrhoea in calves, is widespread both in smallholder and large-scale dairy farming. This causes raw milk to be contaminated with antibiotic drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, which is a public health concern.

Ensuring good udder health for first-lactation animals should begin well before they enter the lactating herd. According to Dr Arinaitwe, this is the main reason farmers must pay attention to cow udder health.

Managing mastitis

Control of mastitis is based on prevention of infections. According to Dr Arinaitwe, a sound mastitis control programme should be implemented.

He recommends such practices as proper use of milking machines, pre- and post-milking teat disinfection, dry cow therapy at the end of lactation, use of teat sealants, culling of cows with chronic mastitis and vaccination.

For mild to moderate cases of mastitis, the preferred form of treatment is with an intra-mammary mastitis tube.

Dr Arinaitwe believes it is essential that the drying off procedure is done meticulously.

He says that the start and end of the dry period pose particular risk for cows picking up new mastitis infections, so it is crucial to pay attention during these critical times.

“Mastitis is a human made disease – it is not herd dependent, but human dependent. You need to manage the environment at drying off, have a good procedure, use the right product and ensure milk production is reduced,” he adds.

Dr Arinaitwe explains that to minimise the risk of infection being introduced at the start of the dry period, the first priority should be to ensure drying off is carried out as a specific event and not at the same time as milking.

He advises using fresh cotton wool soaked in warm water and a disinfectant that will clean and soften the teats. He cautions against washing the whole udder so as to avoid drawing contamination down to the teat ends.

“Teats should then be dried thoroughly with a fresh paper towel. Teat wipes or fresh cotton wool should then be used to apply surgical spirit to the teat ends,” he says.

Diagnostics

He explains the prevention of intramammary infections  further reduces clinical cases.

This can be used by applying an effective pre-dip to achieve the goal of having teats with very few bacteria on them.

Pre-dip does not work very well in the presence of organic matter such as manure and bedding on the teats.

Dr Arinaitwe recommends regular submission of milk samples from clinical cases to laboratories for analysis as an essential tool to help guide farmers’ control plans and treatment decisions.

He adds that focus should also be placed on the use of diagnostics to help tailor mastitis control on the farm.

Diagnosis should be made on clinical signs of abnormal milk, swelling of the udder and general signs of illness such as fever, depression, loss of appetite and in many cases a reduction in milk production.

For subclinical mastitis, the diagnosis will be made on the basis of an increase in somatic cells in the milk. Bacteriology provides useful information about the likely source of the bacteria and aids in developing a mastitis control plan.

Other measures

James Mugerwa, a mixed farmer in Mukono, says one of the most important tools for farmers is to keep farm records and only buy cattle with traceable disease and treatment history and movement.

“The animal you get to the farm should be vaccinated, have a clear record from the diseases it was treated for and it should be the right breed,” he says.

Recommended practices

 • Proper use of a functional milking machine with appropriate milking machine maintenance.

• Teat dipping, pre- and post-milking with an effective, approved teat dip.

• Early treatment of clinical cases.

• Dry cow therapy at the end of lactation with one of a dry cow mastitis products.

• Use of an internal teat sealant.

• Culling of cows with chronic mastitis.

• Appropriate vaccination with a Gram-negative core antigen vaccine to prevent coliform infections.