Neither CMT score nor SCC is sensitive enough to be useful as a screening test for identifying infected quarters.”
John Middleton, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia
Timing is everything when it comes to detecting mastitis
The most costly animal disease in the world, mastitis is a mammary gland infection that robs milk producers of $10 billion annually around the globe in dairy industry productivity losses and treatment costs. The loss is $2 billion annually in the US alone. Mastitis is a silent thief, with some not fully realizing the cost from lost milk revenue caused by lower production from infected cows, which produce fewer pounds of milk per lactation, are in the herd for fewer lactation cycles and lose milk quality premiums. Tangible costs of antibiotics, treatment expense and milk that must be discarded after treatment add to the cost.
There are two degrees of mastitis: clinical and subclinical. Clinical (obviously symptomatic) mastitis requires immediate antibiotic treatment, removal of the cow from production and possible replacement of permanently damaged cows. However, subclinical (non-symptomatic) early stage mastitis is the biggest problem causing most mastitis losses (mostly productivity). Subclinical mastitis can also substantially decrease the quality of the milk, which determines price and marketability.
The key to controlling both categories of mastitis costs is accurate and sensitive detection of subclinical mastitis within the critical period after calving and before production of salable milk begins. In the words of a leading mastitis researcher, Dr. Eric Hillerton of New Zealand, reliable identification of the infected quarter is “…the Holy Grail of mastitis control….” More than one-third of all mastitis cases occur in very early lactation, but current tests do not work well on a cow’s first milk, a thick, sticky substance called colostrum. The SCC+ System does.
By revolutionizing mastitis detection, AAD can help producers stem mastitis losses, which are widely regarded as amounting to $240 or more per cow (or about 8% of a farm’s total raw milk revenue).
