Mastitis detection

[Happy hillbily]

After milk recording at the begining of the month, I have sort of found the culprits of my latest run of high cell counts, all subclinical with no signs at all, but a different bunch of cows to the ones i found earlier in the year.
Im looking at different ways to pinpoint the cows that are running high cell counts, without having to send samples off, but also checking cows after treatment. Not having the best of results with the cmt, i was thinking of possibly getting a hand held conductivity tester.
Theres the Draminski detector, a cheap chinese copy, or the westcor Mas-D-tec tester.
Knowing the way the chinese stuff is usually made we shall pass on the cheap chinese ones. im favouring the mas-d-tec. Seems simpler than the draminski and possibly less subseptible to damage.
Its been around many years, but ive not heard much. Has anyone got one or used one ? Opinions please

 

[Kiwi Pete]

When you say "not getting the best of results with the cmt" could you enlarge on that please? We are using diluted 'Sunlight liquid' dishwash detergent in our paddles and it has worked really well, first pickup of the season 107bmscc

 

[box]

I use a Technipharm MilkChecker 2000 if it's any help. Very quick and easy to use but not cheap.

 

[vantage]

After milk recording at the begining of the month, I have sort of found the culprits of my latest run of high cell counts, all subclinical with no signs at all, but a different bunch of cows to the ones i found earlier in the year.
Im looking at different ways to pinpoint the cows that are running high cell counts, without having to send samples off, but also checking cows after treatment. Not having the best of results with the cmt, i was thinking of possibly getting a hand held conductivity tester.
Theres the Draminski detector, a cheap chinese copy, or the westcor Mas-D-tec tester.
Knowing the way the chinese stuff is usually made we shall pass on the cheap chinese ones. im favouring the mas-d-tec. Seems simpler than the draminski and possibly less subseptible to damage.
Its been around many years, but ive not heard much. Has anyone got one or used one ? Opinions please

We had a Mas-D- tec, years ago. Remember it was pretty good, over the years it got used less, then unfortunately got lost in the move, when we knocked our dairy tank room and store down.

 

[frederick]

After milk recording at the begining of the month, I have sort of found the culprits of my latest run of high cell counts, all subclinical with no signs at all, but a different bunch of cows to the ones i found earlier in the year.
Im looking at different ways to pinpoint the cows that are running high cell counts, without having to send samples off, but also checking cows after treatment. Not having the best of results with the cmt, i was thinking of possibly getting a hand held conductivity tester.
Theres the Draminski detector, a cheap chinese copy, or the westcor Mas-D-tec tester.
Knowing the way the chinese stuff is usually made we shall pass on the cheap chinese ones. im favouring the mas-d-tec. Seems simpler than the draminski and possibly less subseptible to damage.
Its been around many years, but ive not heard much. Has anyone got one or used one ? Opinions please

I think you would be much better off going for six week milk recording than investing in a tester. Especially as you seem to have gained a subclinical problem.

 

[In the pit]

I think you would be much better off going for six week milk recording than investing in a tester. Especially as you seem to have gained a subclinical problem.

And if this problem is a staph problem you need to sort out what’s caused /causing it and fix it and start culling infected cows

 

[Happy hillbily]

When you say "not getting the best of results with the cmt" could you enlarge on that please? We are using diluted 'Sunlight liquid' dishwash detergent in our paddles and it has worked really well, first pickup of the season 107bmscc

The same, im using fairy liquid at a dilution of 1:4. Works pretty good most of the time. Still getting a week between high bulk tank cel counts and the culprits going clinical, and finding them inbetween is difficuilt and time consuming, and with me pre dipping and dipping the clusters, milking has turned into a long laborius job, especially if your not sure of the cmt result and test the cow again. Just possibly thinking the mas-d-tec would be simpler and quicker.

 

[box]

A suggestion that's a little bit out of the box, but have you thought about fitting an in-bail mastitis detection system?

How many cows and how many clusters in your shed?

Even if you only fit one unit to one bail, every cow will get tested every couple of weeks (or whatever), you'll soon get some idea of who's causing problems.

Time is money, every minute the machine is ticking away is money out of your pocket. A little bit of automation might be a good idea long term, especially if you're not regularly herd testing.

Look into the Bovonic QuadSense system which has just been released this June, otherwise Allflex SCC.

 

[Farmer Keith]

If you’re dealing with staph and you’ve a load of genuine new cases the first port of call is to stop it spreading. I’d send a few samples away to find out which pathogen you’re dealing with of off the newly infected cows and work from there. If it is staph I’d recommend putting a flush system in, we had big issues with it in 2014 and have not gone far wrong since putting ADF in, it’s a huge labour save and stopped cow to cow transmission over night.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The same, im using fairy liquid at a dilution of 1:4. Works pretty good most of the time. Still getting a week between high bulk tank cel counts and the culprits going clinical, and finding them inbetween is difficuilt and time consuming, and with me pre dipping and dipping the clusters, milking has turned into a long laborius job, especially if your not sure of the cmt result and test the cow again. Just possibly thinking the mas-d-tec would be simpler and quicker.

Thanks for the explanation
Yes it's pretty awful when it's doing that, for the first time in my dairying career we are doing a proper prep/strip instead of the usual kiwi "chuck cups on" "dilution is the solution" ways of doing things.

Yes labour intensive but so so good, have 300 in the milkers and 5 red cows.... not 25! Nice to work for a sharemilker again I must say.

Probably the ideal would be a mas d tec or similar, we had cellsense testers and they were great but pretty expensive

 

[Kiwi Pete]

A suggestion that's a little bit out of the box, but have you thought about fitting an in-bail mastitis detection system?

How many cows and how many clusters in your shed?

Even if you only fit one unit to one bail, every cow will get tested every couple of weeks (or whatever), you'll soon get some idea of who's causing problems.

Time is money, every minute the machine is ticking away is money out of your pocket. A little bit of automation might be a good idea long term, especially if you're not regularly herd testing.

Look into the Bovonic QuadSense system which has just been released this June, otherwise Allflex SCC.

They were fantastic really. Even if you can swing cups to a suspect cow and carry on, it gave a proper indication of where she was at .

 

[O'Reilly]

Thought you were never going to work in dairy again?

 

[Blue.]

If you’re dealing with staph and you’ve a load of genuine new cases the first port of call is to stop it spreading. I’d send a few samples away to find out which pathogen you’re dealing with of off the newly infected cows and work from there. If it is staph I’d recommend putting a flush system in, we had big issues with it in 2014 and have not gone far wrong since putting ADF in, it’s a huge labour save and stopped cow to cow transmission over night.

Have you seen @Happy hillbily s parlour? he doesn’t have jetters so I’d say Adf isn’t going to happen,a good old bucket of water/peracetic acid will do the trick fine.

 

[How Dairy]

I would definitely look at essential sampling if you don't want to go full milk recording. You will discover lots of benefits as a result of doing it - it is only a matter of time before buyers clamp down on SDCT.

Biggest issue here is that you could discover you have a particular pathogen in the new cases but not realise that the new cases were infected during the dry period .... so you spend loads on detection and eliminating it in lactating cows and end up missing the real open goal and tighten up dry off and dry cow management.

 

[Happy hillbily]

At drying off, teats are cleaned with make up pads and surgical spirits, and cleaned until a new pad comes away clean, usually only takes two pads. All cows are sealed and those with a case of mastitis in the previous lactation was given dry cow tubes (that was before i started recording) cows (drys and milkers) are run as one group in winter, cubicles are kept clean and dry with platts powderbed, i wouldn't class the cows as being dirty at all in winter. Summer the cows are sent to the hill with the heifers on 25 acres of standing hay type of stuff, so their not crowded in a small paddock.
So not sure if there is anything more i can do with the dry cow management side, happy to be proved wrong though.

 

[Farmer Keith]

Have you seen @Happy hillbily s parlour he doesn’t have jetters so I’d say Adf isn’t going to happen,a good old bucket of water/peracetic acid will do the trick fine.

Oh right, I think he’s written the buckets of water and acid are making milking a very labour intensive job? We did it for a while and it was not a long term solution IMO.

 

[Happy hillbily]

Oh right, I think he’s written the buckets of water and acid are making milking a very labour intensive job? We did it for a while and it was not a long term solution IMO.

Its only adding 10 ish seconds a cow to dip the clusters, as the bucket is right next to where the cluster is hung up, same with the pre dipping, its only 15-30 seconds, but it adds up, the prep with everything trying to sort out this problem thats making milking a bit of a chore.
When we stopped washing and drying udders with warm water and a dash of hypo, to dry wiping with paper towels, it was a massive time saver, you could fly through the cows just so much quicker.

 

[How Dairy]

At drying off, teats are cleaned with make up pads and surgical spirits, and cleaned until a new pad comes away clean, usually only takes two pads. All cows are sealed and those with a case of mastitis in the previous lactation was given dry cow tubes (that was before i started recording) cows (drys and milkers) are run as one group in winter, cubicles are kept clean and dry with platts powderbed, i wouldn't class the cows as being dirty at all in winter. Summer the cows are sent to the hill with the heifers on 25 acres of standing hay type of stuff, so their not crowded in a small paddock.
So not sure if there is anything more i can do with the dry cow management side, happy to be proved wrong though.

Sorry I didn't mean to appear like I was questioning your dry cow management. It sounds excellent - though I'd want to know if anything had had over 200 SCC in the last 3 months.

It was more about knowing where the source of your new infections are coming from. I think that milk recording will help you to know that and avoid looking where you think it ought to be coming from. If you have Strep uberis (which is quite likely as it is really common), it has both a contagious and environmental characteristic.

 

[Happy hillbily]

No please keep questioning, might help to find the source !

 

[How Dairy]

No please keep questioning, might help to find the source !

I'd want to know, how many cases of mastitis/high SCC are in the first 30 days after calving, how many are in heifers, how many are first cases/repeat cases/chronic cases. I would also want to know if there is some sort of seasonality to it.