Focus on bovine mastitis: knowledge into practice

Mastitis continues to be a cause of significant economic loss to the dairy industry internationally. Despite significant advances in our understanding of the disease, clinical and sub-clinical mastitis remains a problem in dairy herds and prevalence rates in many countries remain similar to those published decades ago. In the complex milieu of the modern dairy farm, it is the interaction of production diseases including mastitis, their relationship with nutritional strategy, housing, environment and the fundamental influence of social and attitudinal factors that make prevention and control such a challenge. Thus, dairy cows are eight times more likely to develop mastitis if they suffered milk fever at parturition. Mastitis is the most costly disease of cattle; it impacts on animal health and welfare, on market image, on profitability and, critically, on the quality of life of dairy farmers. Mastitis is stressful for both cows and farmers. Importantly, clinical mastitis represents only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and it is the significance of the sub-clinical disease that is frequently underestimated.