Although intensive research and prevention measures have been carried out for decades to control bovine mastitis, it continues to cause the biggest economic impact to the dairy industry worldwide. Severe economic losses, which are estimated to be approximately $200/cow/yr in the United States, are due to reduced milk production, discarded milk, replacement costs, extra labor, treatment, and vet...

A study was carried out on 117 smallholder dairy cattle herds in Kikuyu Division of Kiambu District Kenya between April 2004 and December 2004 to determine the incidence of periparturient conditions (downer cow syndrome, dystocia, milk fever and retained placenta among others) in smallholder dairy cattle herds and the associated factors (plausible predictor variables; age, parity and management...

BACKGROUND Several management and environmental factors are known as contributory causes of clinical mastitis in dairy herd. The study objectives were to describe the structure of herd-specific mastitis management and environmental factors and to assess the relevance of these herd-specific indicators to mastitis incidence rate. METHODS Disease reports from the Danish Cattle Data Base and a ma...

The establishment and maintenance of pregnancy in lactating dairy cows is a complex biological event that is influenced by a multitude of factors, from the reproductive biology of the cow to managerial aspects of the dairy farm. It is often mentioned in the scientific literature that fertility in dairy cows has declined concurrent with major advances in milk production. Some of this decline is ...

The purpose of this study was to determine if a particularsomatic cell count (SCC) range can be used as an indicator ofintramammary infection (IMI). Mastitis in dairy cows is mostlycaused by microbial infections and changes in pathogenicitymay be indicated by increased SCC. Cyto-microbiologicalexaminations were performed on 491 464 quarter andcomposite cow milk sampl...

There is growing interest among the public in farm animal welfare and a need for methods to assess animal welfare on farm. A survey on calf rearing practices that might affect dairy calf welfare was performed via a 1-h interview on 115 dairy farms (mean +/- SD: herd size=52.5+/-20.9 cows; milk production=8,697+/-1,153L) distributed throughout the province of Quebec. Despite frequent recommendat...

Mastitis is a costly disease of dairy cattle as it causes a loss in milk yield and milk quality in affected cows. Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes play a role in the host response to a variety of organisms including those inducing mastitis. In the present study, we investigated the polymorphism of TLR2, 4, 6 and 9 genes in Holstein cattle and ...

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of clinical mastitis and somatic cell count (SCC) in six dairy herds which had different milking management and hygiene conditions. Four hundred thirty one Holstein Friesian cows were used in the study. The herds were classified to be good (Group 1, n=2), medium (Group 2, n=1) or bad (Group 3, n=3) according to milking management and hygiene...

M i l k i n g cows three times a day ( 3 x 1 to increase production is not a new idea. The practice has been confined mainly to purebred herds, but with rising costs for facility expansion, increases in labor efficiency through mechanization, and higher herd average production levels, 3X milking may be worth considering as a long-term strategy for many commercial herds. While it may seem inappr...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether prepartum intramammary treatment of dairy heifers with pirlimycin hydrochloride would reduce the prevalence of intramammary infection (IMI) and lower the somatic cell count (SCC) during early lactation or improve 305-day mature equivalent milk production. DESIGN Prospective clinical trial. ANIMALS 183 Holstein-Friesian heifers (663 quarters) from 2 dairy farms...