Mastitis Is One Ot The Big Problems The Taranaki Dairy Farmer Has To Face

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 19 (Supplement)

Mastitis Is One Ot The Big Problems The Taranaki Dairy Farmer Has To Face

Various types of mastitis are responsible for one of the greatest, if not the greatest, problem which confronts the dairy farmer. Farmers frequently blame the weather, a draughty shed or standing, incomplete stripping or bad milking for causing mastitig, but although all these may be.contributory factors in the development of the trouble and may, perhaps, cause a latent or sleeping infection of a quarter suddenly "to light up" and become apparent, alone they cannot cause the common forms of mastitis. They may render the udder tissues more liabje to be attacked by germs, but the changes in the udder tissue are brought about as a direct result of the presence, and the multiplication, of certain disease-producing germs in the udder. Disease Bacilli. There is every reason to believe, however, that the most potent contributory cause of mastitisv and especially the various forms of streptococcal mastitis, is a crack or sore place on the teat. Indeed the principal method of infection is probajjly through abrasions of the teats becoming- infected with the germs harbouring on .the floor of the shed, in the bedding, but most commonly on the hands of the -milkers or the cups of the milking machine.; Injuries to the teats caused by treads, rough milking or chapping of the teats consequent upon wet milking all ppen up the way for infection of the udder. It is probably not an over-estimate to say that at least one-third of all milking cows are infected with one or another type of streptococcal mastitis. There are two main types of this trouble: acute and chronic. The acute form is the less common

and, as a rule, occurs in young cows and heifers causing marked swelling, heat and pain in the affected quarter or quarters with obvious changes in thb . milk and an immediate and marked reduction in the yield of the animal. Recovery may take place with suitable treatment but the quarter never niilks up to capacity again and frequently the quarter looses its ability to secrete milk and finally shrinks. Very often, this acute type of mastiti3 will yield to drugs or injections pro--vided they are administered during the early stages of the disease. Indeed, some of the results obtained in Taranaki from qualified treatment have been little less than spectacular. Chronic Mastitis. The chronic form of streptococcal mastitis is generally encountered in older cows, indeed, few cows over five ot six years old have escaped the infection, although nothing amiss may be noted by the farmer. Affected quarters continue • to - give apparently normal milk, but in many cases if the fore milk be carefuUy^ examined, especially in a strip c\ip, small flocculi or strings may often be noted. As the disease progresses the quarter becomes firmer and fails to qontract after milking out, until finally. it definitely "goes light" and hardening _ OI the udder tissue is obvious, often causing marked lumpiness of the quarter. Apparent recovery from these acute attacks is not uncommon— especially if care be taken to keep the affected quarter stripped cut at frequent intervals. Subsequent acute attacks, however, are common and after each attack the quarter gets harder and harder until it becomes functionless.