non-antibiotic

For many years, and still in many regions in the World today, blanket mastitis treatment has been the routine, both during lactation and at dry-off. It has made farmers confident and helped them boost milk production.

However, switching to selective treatment is now crucial, with the more than ever tough challenge of antimicrobial resistance.

The principle behind selective antimicrobial treatment of non-severe events of clinical mastitis means treating only those cases that will be responsive to antimicrobials.

One step back. Routine treatment can be avoided if:

On-farm udder health management activites have been improved;
Early detection approaches and udder health monitoring are applied;
Incidence and prevalence of clinical cases caused by contagious microorganisms have been reduced.

In a recent review, de Jong and colleagues (2023) reported that, nowadays, where we have confined housing systems, a high percentage of clinical cases are due to environmental, Gram-negative microorganisms. This is why overall management becomes a must to further curb the number of clinical cases.

Severity (mild, moderate, severe) is an important criterion to decide what strategy will suit the case.

For mild cases, dairy farmers would be able to early detect them through milk observation: milk changes, such as presence of milk flakes and color variation, are good indicators. It is worth saying that visible changes are generally limited to the milk.

Concerning moderate cases, inflammatory signs start showing up in the infected quarter(s), while in severe events we will be able to observe changes in the cow (sickness at cow level), in addition to changes in milk and udder.

Systematically treating severe cases has been a well-established practice, reflecting the perceived risks of possible sepsis. However, to encourage prudent use of certain antimicrobial products, many countries have been taking steps to make these products available to dairy producers only upon veterinary prescription.

These law efforts aim at encouraging efficient herd health management and, such as in the EU, collecting information on microbial etiology and sensitivity to support the need of treatment.

According to a recent meta-anylisis (Kurban et al., 2022; de Jong et al., 2023), the percentage of milk samples (collected in the US, Brazil, Canada) not yielding bacterial growth is 40%. Thus, in absence of severe signs, these cases should not be considered for antimicrobial treatment.

Therefore, being able to identify and discriminate different cases is the first, fundamental step for selective treatment, in addition to pre-required efficient farm management.

Some cases have high rates of spontaneous cure; however, there are no guarantees on the success. Thus, two are the possible outcomes: either spontaneous cure, or worsening of the case.

The situation may worsen because, when we see the first signs of a possible case, it means that the tissue is already stressed, for many possible reasons. This stress makes the tissue much more susceptible to potential environmental microorganisms.

Thus, providing a physical barrier to support the mammary tissue can represent an effective strategy to eliminate any doubt.

OZOLEA-MAST can fit properly into a selective approach to mastitis management. In fact, it was designed for timely intervention as soon as milkers/farmers detect the initial stages of a possible mastitis case (i.e., milk flakes and electrical conducitivity changes).

When applied, OZOLEA-MAST creates a temporary film-forming barrier, gining a respite to the mammary tissue from environmental exposure, and thus allowing it to proceed with autonomous regeneration. The benefits of natural regeneration are restored integrity and functionality, which are directly linked to self-defense mechanisms and milk production at full potential.

OZOLEA MAST does not cure or treat clinical cases.

OZOLEA developed several protocols that can benefit different situations, such as chronically high SCC cows, sinergies with antibiotic therapies, drying off, and so forth. All these protocol have one goal in common: working on udder issues to minimize antibiotic usage.

Get in contact with the OZOLEA team to know more on how the product could help you in different cases!

References

1. de Jong E, McCubbin KD, Speksnijder D, Dufour S, Middleton JR, Ruegg PL, Lam TJGM, Kelton DF, McDougall S, Godden SM, Lago A, Rajala-Schultz PJ, Orsel K, De Vliegher S, Krömker V, Nobrega DB, Kastelic JP, Barkema HW. Invited review: Selective treatment of clinical mastitis in dairy cattle. J Dairy Sci. 2023 Jun;106(6):3761-3778. doi: 10.3168/jds.2022-22826. Epub 2023 Apr 18. PMID: 37080782.

2. Kurban D, Roy J-P, Kabera F, Fréchette A, Um MM, Albaaj A, Rowe S, Godden S, Adkins PRF, Middleton JR, et al. Diagnosing Intramammary Infection: Meta-Analysis and Mapping Review on Frequency and Udder Health Relevance of Microorganism Species Isolated from Bovine Milk Samples. Animals. 2022; 12(23):3288. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12233288

The perfect size of hospital pen is zero cows.

This is true in a perfect dairy system, where eliminating hospital pens could be possible.

However, what dairy farmers can generally aim at is bringing numbers of cows down in the hospital pen. It is a matter of revised overall management on farms.

Having a hospital pen on farms is not the rule, no matter what type of farm. It is just simply necessary in many cases. Nevertheless, along with pros, we do also have cons.

One side effect of hospital pens is that we need to move cows from the milking group, where they have their routine, to another new environment, thus changing their social hierarchy temporarily. And this means higher stress levels for them, plus more challenges for farmers trying to effectively cure animals.

Thus, dairy farmers generally put major effort to minimize the need of moving cows in the hospital pen.

In dairy, mastitis is the disease remarkably affecting animal health, milk production, farmers’ profit, and overall animal health. Hospital pens facilitate treatment of cows with mastitis.

Should we move cows in the hospital pen, independently from the severity of the specific mastitis case?

We have not to. Roughly 85% of mild to moderate cases do not need antibiotic therapy, as justified by milk cultures. At this point, two are the possible outcomes: either self-cure or things getting worse.

In these circumstances, early detection can help farmers to early intervene. And early intervention can help minimize the number of cows in the hospital pen.

This is the perfect situation for the use of OZOLEA’s non-withdrawal, non-antibiotic, non-prescription animal device– OZOLEA-MAST. By intervening timely on early signs of tissue disorders generally appearing before a clinical case, like milk flakes or electrical conductivity changes, with OZOLEA-MAST farmers will be able to provide support and protection to the mammary tissue, allowing it to autonomously regenerate. One good, easy-to-use, harmless, effective solution to reduce the number of cows in the hospital pen and the stress they experience while moving them from pen to pen: treatment will occur right after milking, keeping cows in the milking group.

The benefits of autonomous regeneration are restored tissue integrity and functionality, so that the tissue is able again to produce milk and defend itself properly against infections.

OZOLEA-MAST puts nature against nature, and it is suitable both for organic and conventional dairy farming.

Get in contact with the OZOLEA team to give the product a try in your dairy herd!

non-antibiotic

To treat or not to treat? Selective treatment in udder health management

References

The perfect size of hospital pens is zero cows