Magazine on Mastitis and Milk quality for the dairy professional

#37-2023

Focus

“Rules of three”: a primer on dairy cattle welfare

34 min read ,  ,  , 

Animal welfare is both an area of growing societal interest and a topic of scientific inquiry. Human stakeholders who are invested in the welfare of dairy cattle include dairy farmers and others in the industry, dairy cooperatives, processors, and other companies along the supply chain, and potential consumers of dairy products. To safeguard the sustainability of the dairy industry, practices on farms must align with societal expectations for the treatment of animals. In this piece, Dr. Jennifer Van Os will deliver a primer on three topics relating to dairy cattle welfare, each in turn described using a “rule of three”.

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Management

Slovakia mastitis case study

14 min read ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

Mikas Farm is Slovakia has expanded from 1,200 cows in 2018 to 2,100 cows in 2023. Over the past five years the mastitis rate (cases of mastitis per 100 cows per year) has reduced from 76 to 26. This article describes the journey in reducing mastitis. The herd houses its cows all year round. Cows are milked 3X and fed a TMR diet based around maize silage. In 2018 the average yield was 35 litres/cow per day.

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ProjectResearch | Free access

New Zealand’s Mycoplasma bovis Eradication Programme

16 min read ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) is a bacterium that can cause serious disease in cattle, including mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis, and ill-thrift in calves. An inherent resistance to a number of antibiotics paired with growing acquired antimicrobial resistance is a concern for animal welfare and productivity. Up until 2017, infection occurred in all major cattle-rearing countries apart from New Zealand (NZ). In this article, Dr. Amy Burroughs explains teh New Zealand’s Mycoplasma bovis eradication programme.

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Researcher@work

Unique herd of Holsteins could help increase resistance to mastitis

10 min read , 

The University of Minnesota (UMN), US has maintained a unique herd of unselected Holsteins since the mid-1960s when Dr. Charles Young developed a breeding program as part of a multistate, north central regional (NC-2) project (Young, 1977; Weber et al., 2007). The original foundation cows in the UMN breeding program were paired by genetic merit and assigned to either a low- or high-merit line. The high-merit cows and their female descendants have been inseminated with semen from high Predicted Transmitting Abilities (PTA)-milk sires and represent contemporary Holsteins. The low-merit cows and their female descendants have been bred with semen from sires that were breed average for PTA-milk in 1964 and thus represent average US Holsteins from the mid-1960s. Average milk yield of the unselected Holsteins has remained relatively stable at about 6,500 kg/305 lactation while yield of their contemporary Holstein herdmates has continued to increase.

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Researchers Network

Nordic Mastitis Researchers’ Network develops strategy for Scandinavian dairy sector

6 min read ,  , 

University of Helsinki, Finland Professor of Milk Hygiene and Cattle Health Päivi Rajala-Schultz has called her decision to found the Nordic Mastitis Researchers’ Network a ‘somewhat selfish’ act, but the resulting organization has helped Scandinavian researchers identify knowledge gaps and research needs. It has also prepared them for their nextRead more

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