The Library

Cow, farm, and management factors during the dry period that determine the rate of clinical mastitis after calving

Tools

Green, M. J., Bradley, Andrew J., Medley, Graham and Browne, W. J.. (2007) Cow, farm, and management factors during the dry period that determine the rate of clinical mastitis after calving. Journal of Dairy Science, Vol.90 (No.8). pp. 3764-3776. ISSN 0022-0302

Preview

PDF
WRAP_Medley_Cow_farm_mastitis.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Download (202Kb)

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2007-0107

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to investigate cow characteristics, farm facilities, and herd management strategies during the dry period to examine their joint influence on the rate of clinical mastitis after calving. Data were collected over a 2-yr period from 52 commercial dairy farms throughout England and Wales. Cows were separated for analysis into those housed for the dry period (8,710 cow-dry periods) and those at pasture (9,964 cow-dry periods). Multilevel models were used within a Bayesian framework with 2 response variables, the occurrence of a first case of clinical mastitis within the first 30 d of lactation and time to the first case of clinical mastitis during lactation. A variety of cow and herd management factors were identified as being associated with an increased rate of clinical mastitis and these were found to occur throughout the dry period. Significant cow factors were increased parity and at least one somatic cell count 200,000 cells/mL in the 90 d before drying off. A number of management factors related to hygiene were significantly associated with an increased rate of clinical mastitis. These included measures linked to the administration of dry-cow treatments and management of the early and late dry-period accommodation and calving areas. Other farm factors associated with a reduced rate of clinical mastitis were vaccination with a leptospirosis vaccine, selection of dry-cow treatments for individual cows within a herd rather than for the herd as a whole, routine body condition scoring of cows at drying off, and a pasture rotation policy of grazing dry cows for a maximum of 2 wk before allowing the pasture to remain nongrazed for a period of 4 wk. Models demonstrated a good ability to predict the farm incidence rate of clinical mastitis in a given year, with model predictions explaining over 85% of the variability in the observed data. The research indicates that specific dry-period management strategies have an important influence on the rate of clinical mastitis during the next lactation.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) > Biological Sciences ( -2010)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Mastitis -- Great Britain, Dairy farming -- Great Britain -- Statistics, Cattle -- Diseases, Dairy farming -- Management
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Dairy Science
Publisher:	American Dairy Science Association
ISSN:	0022-0302
Official Date:	August 2007
Volume:	Vol.90
Number:	No.8
Page Range:	pp. 3764-3776
Identification Number:	10.3168/jds.2007-0107
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Wellcome Trust (London, England), Milk Development Council (Great Britain) (MDC)
References:	Berry, E., and J. E. Hillerton. 2002. The effect of an intramammary teat seal on new intramammary infections. J. Dairy Sci. 85:2512–2520. Bradley, A. J., and M. J. Green. 2000. A study of the incidence and significance of intramammary enterobacterial infections acquired during the dry period. J. Dairy Sci. 83:1957–1965. Bradley, A. J., and M. J. Green. 2001. An investigation of the impact of intramammary antibiotic dry cow therapy on clinical coliform mastitis. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1632–1639. Bradley, A. J., and M. J. Green. 2004. The importance of the non-lactating period in the epidemiology of intramammary infection and strategies for prevention. Vet. Clin. North Am. Food Anim. Pract. 20:547–568. Bradley, A. J., J. N. Huxley, and M. J. Green. 2002. A rational approach to dry cow therapy. II. Making logical treatment decisions. In Pract. 25:12–17. Bradley, A. J., K. A. Leach, J. E. Breen, L. E. Green, and M. J. Green. 2007. A survey of the incidence rate and aetiology of mastitis on dairy farms in England and Wales. Vet. Rec. 160:253–258. Browne, W. J., and D. Draper. 2006. A comparison of Bayesian and likelihood-based methods for fitting multilevel models. Bayesian Anal. 1:473–514. Dingwell, R. T., K. E. Leslie, Y. H. Schukken, J. M. Sargeant, L. L. Timms, T. F. Duffield, G. P. Keefe, D. F. Kelton, K. D. Lissemore, and J. Conklin. 2004. Association of cow and quarter-level factors at drying-off with new intramammary infections during the dry period. Prev. Vet. Med. 30:75–89. Dohoo, I. R., W. Martin, and H. Stryhn. 2003. Veterinary Epidemiologic Research. AVC Inc., Charlottetown, Canada. Dohoo, I. R., and A. H. Meek. 1982. Somatic cell counts in bovine milk. Can. Vet. J. 23:119–125. Ellis, W. A., J. J. O’Brien, D. G. Bryson, and D. P. Mackie. 1985. Bovine leptospirosis: Some clinical features of serovar Hardjo infection. Vet. Rec. 117:101–104. Collett, D. 1994. Modelling Survival Data in Medical Research. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Gelman, A., X. L. Meng, and H. Stern. 1996. Posterior predictive assessment of model fitness via realized discrepancies. Stat. Sinica 6:733–807. Gilks, W. R., S. Richardson, and D. J. Spiegelhalter. 1996. Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Practice. Chapman and Hall, London, UK. Goldstein, H. 1995. Multilevel Statistical Models. 2nd ed. Edward Arnold, London, UK. Green, M. J., P. R. Burton, L. E. Green, Y. H. Schukken, A. J. Bradley, E. J. Peeler, and G. F. Medley. 2004. The use of Markov chain Monte Carlo for analysis of correlated binary data: Patterns of somatic cells in milk and the risk of clinical mastitis in dairy cows. Prev. Vet. Med. 64:157–174. Green, M. J., L. E. Green, A. J. Bradley, P. R. Burton, Y. H. Schukken, and G. F. Medley. 2005. Bacterial isolates in the dry bovine mammary gland: Prevalence and associations. Vet. Rec. 156:71–77. Green, M. J., L. E. Green, G. F. Medley, Y. H. Schukken, and A. J. Bradley. 2002a. Influence of dry period bacterial intramammary infection on clinical mastitis in dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 85:2589–2599. Green, M. J., J. N. Huxley, and A. J. Bradley. 2002b. A rational approach to dry cow therapy. I. Background and current perspectives. In Pract. 24:582–587. Green, M. J., K. A. Leach, J. E. Breen, L. E. Green, and A. J. Bradley. 2007. A national intervention study of mastitis control on dairy herds in England and Wales. Vet. Rec. 160:287–293. Guitian, F. J., F. J. Garcia-Pena, J. Oliveira, M. L. Sanjuan, and E. Yus. 2001. Serological study of the frequency of leptospiral infections among dairy cows in farms with suboptimal reproductive efficiency in Galicia, Spain. Vet. Microbiol. 80:275–284. Hogan, J., and L. K. Smith. 2003. Coliform mastitis. Vet. Res. 34:507–519. Huijps, K., and H. Hogeveen. 2007. Stochastic modeling to determine the economic effects of blanket, selective, and no dry cow therapy. J. Dairy Sci. 90:1225–1234. Huxley, J. N., M. J. Green, L. E. Green, and A. J. Bradley. 2002. Evaluation of the efficacy of an internal teat sealer during the dry period. J. Dairy Sci. 85:551–561. National Mastitis Council. 1999. Laboratory Handbook on Bovine Mastitis. National Mastitis Council Inc., Madison, WI. Neave, F. K., F. H. Dodd, and E. Henriques. 1950. Udder infections in the dry period. J. Dairy Res. 17:37–49. Oliver, S. P., and B. A. Mitchell. 1983. Susceptibility of the bovine mammary gland to infections during the dry period. J. Dairy Sci. 66:1162–1166. Paganelli, R., A. Di Iorio, A. Cherubini, F. Lauretani, C. Mussi, S. Volpato, M. Abate, G. Abate, and L. Ferrucci. 2006. Frailty of older age: The role of the endocrine–immune interaction. Curr. Pharm. Des. 12:3147–3159. Rajala-Schultz, P. J., J. S. Hogan, and K. L. Smith. 2005. Association between milk yield at dry-off and probability of intramammary infections at calving. J. Dairy Sci. 88:577–579. Rasbash, J., W. J. Browne, M. Healy, B. Cameron, and C. Charlton. 2005. MLwiN Version 2.02, Multilevel Models Project. Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK. Robert, A., H. Seegers, and N. Bareille. 2006. Incidence of intramammary infections during the dry period without or with antibiotic treatment in dairy cows—A quantitative analysis of published data. Vet. Res. 37:25–48. Smith, K. L., D. A. Todhunter, and P. S. Schoenberger. 1985. Environmental pathogens and intramammary infection during the dry period. J. Dairy Sci. 68:402–417. Spiegelhalter, D. J., N. G. Best, B. P. Carlin, and A. van der Linde. 2002. Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit (with discussion). J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B Stat. Methodol. 64:583–640. Spiegelhalter, D. J., A. Thomas, and N. Best. 2004. WinBUGS Version 1.4.1. MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK. Suriyasathaporn, W., C. Heuer, E. N. Noordhuizen-Stassen, and Y. H. Schukken. 2000. Hyperketonemia and the impairment of udder defense: A review. Vet. Res. 31:397–412. Todhunter, D. A., K. L. Smith, J. S. Hogan, and P. S. Schoenberger. 1991. Gram-negative bacterial infections of the mammary gland in cows. Am. J. Vet. Res. 52:184–188. Weng, N. P. 2006. Aging of the immune system: How much can the adaptive immune system adapt? Immunity 24:491–494. Whist, A. C., O. Østerås, and L. Sølverød. 2006. Clinical mastitis in Norwegian herds after a combined selective dry-cow therapy and teat-dipping trial. J. Dairy Sci. 89:4649–4659. Yang, M., and H. Goldstein. 2003. Modelling survival data in MLwiN 1.20. Centre for Multilevel Modelling, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/667