Mastitis treatment and prevention
Mastitis is one of the most common health disorder of livestock at dairy farms. And it is also one of the most dangerous disease for the enterprise economy: it can decrease the output volume of the milk to nothing.
So the first priority for an owner of a dairy farm is to avoid any possibility of an outbreak. There are three major lines of work in this aspect:
— Cleanliness of the working space;
— Sterility of the procedure;
— Localization of the disease.
The environment is the most common source of contamination. Mastitis is caused by staphylococcus and streptococcus bacterias, that come from manure and spread via dirty bedding and equipment. So sanitary regulations should be applied utterly and controlled on every step of the process.
Rules of dairy milking
Pathogen bacterias get into the udder through the dairy canal or microcracks and sores on the skin. The second protection level is keeping the procedure of milking sterile. For this purpose Group of companies "Izhsintez-Khimprom" proposes usage of special products.
There is a working scheme of safe milking that consists of these steps:
1. Pre-milking dip. The products of udder hygiene series "Italmas", based on iodine, lactic acid, chlorhexidine, and medicinal plants remove the dirt, kill all the microorganisms and prepare the skin for the milking by making it more elastic and soft. They also sterilize equipment if the farm uses milking machines.
2. Milking. The cow is milked either mechanically or manually.
3. Post-milking dip. The udder is washed again to remove all the milk leftovers, kill all the bacterias and make a special barrier that will secure it until the next milking time. Some farms also use additional cream that heals microcracks and sores and creates an extra security coat.
What is really important in this scheme, is that it minimizes the period, when the udder is unprotected and vulnerable. There is practically no chance for mastitis to happen.
If udder cream and dip didn’t work
There are no perfect things in the world, and mastitis still can strike your farm. In this case, it is important to avoid an outbreak and minimize the losses by localization and isolation of the disease.
Mastitis is not incurable, but it spreads really fast via poorly sterilized equipment or infected milk. So when the disease is revealed, all the cows should be tested to detect all the infected ones. After that, the two groups should be held and milked separately until the end of the medication. The infected cows can not be milked before the healthy ones and all the milk they produce should be disposed of.