Reducing the Incidence of Clinical Mastitis in Commercial Dairy Herds: Failures and Success With on Farm Culturing

Introduction Over the years, there have been many methods of milk culturing employed to provide information on mastitis prevention, treatment, and control. In general, these efforts have centered on culturing being done in a laboratory located at a university, milk processor, or veterinary clinic. Products available on the market and efforts required to culture milk on-farm have, in general, been unsuccessful for various and sundry reasons. The main reason for frustration with on-farm milk culturing stems from the fact that it has been difficult to train, equip, and motivate farm personnel to ensure ongoing and accurate culturing for making treatment and prevention decisions. On the other hand, by the time culture results of clinical infections are reported back to the dairy for treatment decisions from other off-farm laboratories, too much time has elapsed. This paper is intended to report on both success and failure in this endeavor, based on a methodology reported by Hess, Neuder, and Sears. (1)