Take action to swiftly correct elevated bulk tank SCC

Prompt correction of somatic cell count in cows soon after calving is a key indicator of animal health and resilience as well as good on-farm mastitis prevention techniques.

In recent years, early lactation SCC has been challenging and not all herds have been able to fully correct the situation by mid-lactation. This negatively impacts milk quality and milk production for the entire lactation. Herds experiencing bulk tank SCC above where they would like it to be need to identify cows calved more than 1 week with SCC over 150,000. Early lactation milk recording is the ideal method to find these cows, with the added benefit of measuring dry cow treatment success and providing an up-to-date EBI figure, ahead of the breeding season. The California Mastitis Test should then be used to select the high cell count quarter, from which to take a sample for bacteriology testing before treating accordingly.

Successful mastitis management is based around 5 steps:

1. Wear clean milkers’ gloves
2. Use suitable and enough post-milking teat disinfection
3. Change cluster liners every 2,000 milkings
4. Service the milking parlour routinely
5. Keep track of individual cow performance by milk recording

One of the key steps in controlling the spread of mastitis bacteria is the use of a suitable post-milking teat disinfection protocol. Post-milking teat disinfection is able to lower new infection rates by 50% when applied effectively. The type and concentration of active ingredients determine product formulation and disinfecting potential. Application method of the chosen product will determine its effectiveness. Fully functional spray or dip equipment and complete teat cover quickly after milking are essential to achieve best results.

Why Milk Record? (Click here)

Milk recording will identify persistently and recently infected cows: Consecutive SCC recordings will identify cows that remain above 200,000 and cows that have recently picked up a mastitis infection. As most mastitis is sub-clinical, these cows would go unnoticed without regular SCC readings and form a source of infection for the rest of the herd. Knowing which cows are infected will allow you to implement control measures such as dipping clusters after infected cows or milking these cows last. For spring calving herds, a first milk recording should be completed around 6 weeks after the start of calving, and certainly by St. Patrick’s day. With a second early milk recording 6 weeks later, before the end of April, the vast majority of cows in the herd are captured within 60 days from calving.

Based on milk recording data, it is easy to determine how successful high cell count cows are being managed in your herd and if the chosen antibiotic treatment is working. Records of the milk culturing & sensitivity testing will guide the selection of antibiotic dry-cow tubes for your herd. https://youtu.be/eQKcbhsnTMc .

In general, cows with high SCC have one badly affected quarter that will drive up the SCC reading in the aggregate milk recording sample for that cow. Carrying out a quick CMT on those cows will find the affected quarter for Milk Culture & Sensitivity testing, treatment or drying off. https://youtu.be/-UqQtng_L2s .

Milk Culture & Sensitivity testing: Recently infected cows that have not been treated with an antibiotic tube are ideal cows to take sterile milk samples from for identifying the bacterial cause of mastitis in your herd. See our guidelines on how to take and submit these samples to the Tirlán Central Laboratory: https://youtu.be/oW7baZGd2Cg .

Results from the Tirlán Central Laboratory can be easily found in the My Account area of Glanbia Connect. This is also where you can find the SCC CellCheck CostCheck Calculator, which will give you an estimate of the amount of money lost based on the current SCC level and the associated loss in milk production.

First Published 3 April 2023