Contagious Mastitis
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Contagious mastitis in cows is often spread during milking. You can minimise the spread by maintaining healthy teat ends, using well-operating milking equipment, and disinfecting teats after milking. Use the practical guidelines and technical notes for information on stockmanship, teat washing, pre-milking disinfection, calm routines for attaching cups, and methods to avoid teat damage. Adhering to these practices helps to control the spread of mastitis and ensure the well-being of your cows.
Contagious mastitis is usually spread during milking. Milk from an infected quarter can be spread to the teat skin of other quarters and cows by dirty hands or gloves, teat cup liners, and cross flow of milk between teat cups. Hygienic practices at milking time help reduce this type of mastitis. Use good milking technique and a consistent routine. There are different types of bacteria that cause contagious mastitis, see Technote 5 on the best ways to deal with them.
Practice using good stockmanship skills to encourage milk let-down and establish a
calm, consistent routine for attaching cups. Know how to strip cows to detect abnormal milk. Always put cups on clean and dry teats. Ensure you have a good teat washing and pre-milking disinfection routine, along with a practiced method of taking cups off that prevents team damage and over milking
Guideline 5 provides practical information on:
Technote 5 provides technical information for farmers and advisers on:
Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of mastitis. Most herds will have some cows with Staph. aureus infections. With good management, these bacteria have minimal impact. But if not well managed, infections may spread from cow to cow.
Download the Staphylococcus aureus mastitis management factsheet below: