incubator

[lazy farmer]

came up at discussion group yesterday and again today with our vet.
So can anybody recommend me a reliable reasonably priced incubator for mastitis culturing please.

there appears to be cow, societal and financial benefits to doing this

thanks in advance

chris

 

[Clive]

these things ? https://www.marketplace.farm/calibre-control-international-ltd/

 

[Ball acre]

came up at discussion group yesterday and again today with our vet.
So can anybody recommend me a reliable reasonably priced incubator for mastitis culturing please.

there appears to be cow, societal and financial benefits to doing this

thanks in advance

chris

Are your vets too slow?

 

[jade35]

these things ? https://www.marketplace.farm/calibre-control-international-ltd/

Unless I'm very wrong the first is just to tell the cell count level and the second is to test that the milk is clear of a/b's before putting it in the tank.



This one?
http://www.milkproduction.com/Libra...mal-health/Testing-for-pre-clinical-mastitis/
Milk Culturing
The gold standard for determining udder infection status is milk culturing. Finding mastitis pathogens in milk is a clear indication of potential problems especially with certain bacterial species. However isolating no pathogens from clinical samples is common and rather confusing.

The Hy-Mast test, from Pharmacia, is used on the farm to test milk samples for presence of mastitis pathogens. It takes approximately 8-12 hours and distinguishes between gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. These two bacterial groups respond differently to antibiotic therapies so knowing which is present is important.

More traditional milk sampling and culture programs, while not rapid cow-side tests, are still excellent for determining specific mastitis pathogens. Milk culturing using a quality lab is still the best and most reliable mastitis diagnostic tool. A key for success is a clean milk sample that is properly stored and handled from the farm to the laboratory. Failure in any of these areas can lead to meaningless information.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

My vet was a bit sceptical about these things. You can get primed plates that are split into three sections to tell you the bug but then what difference does it make to treatment? Apart from co bactan and ubro yellow pretty much all other tubes are a mix of antibiotics to treat a broad spectrum of bugs.

 

[lazy farmer]

those using one have seen big drop in antibiotic use