New mastitis test developed to help reduce antibiotic use on dairy farms
A new test to detect clinical mastitis has been launched in Germany in a bid to reduce the use of antibiotics in a dairy herd.
While the use of antibiotics on farms to treat livestock continues to be scrutinised farmers are being urged to move away from the tradition of blanket treatments.
Mastitis, for example, is one of the most common and costly diseases that can be found in a dairy herd. Using antibiotics to treat mastitis may be an effective method of reducing infections, but there are a number of increasing concerns that cows can build up resistance to this method.
In the past it has been the norm for farmers to treat all four quarters of a dairy cow that was detected with mastitis which was increasing the use of antibiotics and costing the farmer more.
Now in an era when consumers, food processors, supermarkets and governments are calling for reduced use of antibiotics in livestock, farmers are being encouraged to practice more selective treatments.
Peter Zieger practiced as a vet for 11 years in Germany before moving on to work in the animal health industry. He then founded Quidee which is a company looking at innovations for the dairy industry. Mr Zieger, who also works for Diamond V, says testing systems for mastitis have come a long way since the California or Schalm test introduced in the 1950s through to bulk tank testing for SCC and on to individual cow testing. As times have moved on the vet says evidence based testing for mastitis is the way forward and will reduce the use of antibiotics. Mr Zieger said: “Antibiotic usage becomes more and more a high political issue. Most antibiotics on farm are applied for udder health. Vets and farmers therefore are urged to be more prudent with their use of antibiotics.
“Blanket therapy schemes are more and more questioned these days whereas selective treatment options are key in order to save 60 per cent and more on antibiotic use.”
The vet highlights a new test for mastitis called MastDecide from Quidee that caters for evidence based treatment decisions within only two milkings. He said: “MastDecide is a new cow side test that allows evidence based treatment decisions within only two milkings. It is faster than any other comparable test. It is completely new, is patented and was invented at the University of Hannover. “With MastDecide the gram negative, gram positive bacteria or simply ‘no growth’ in clinical mastitis milk samples can be identified. With common sense that gram negative bacteria and ‘no growth’ do not necessarily need any antibacterial treatment, a farmer can save significant amount of antibiotics at similar cure rates. “MastDecide delivers highly accurate results, is easy to apply and to read. Using fewer antibiotics also means less risk for antimicrobial resistance,” he added.
Text by Chris Mc Cullough
