MASTITIS CONTROL

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21226, 24 September 1940, Page 9

MASTITIS CONTROL

RESEARCH AT RUAKURA VALUE OF SEGREGATION Research work to be carried out at the Ruakura Animal Research Station for the present season in regard to mastitis has been designed to clear up some of the points connected with the control of the disease in the shed, the superintendent of the station, Mr P. W. Smallfield, told members of the Ruakura Farm Advisory Committee at its last meeting. This had been found necessary, he said, because the scheme in operation in the Waikato during the past year had failed in some cases to maintain a herd free from the disease, even when the principles of the scheme had been carried out by the farmer. One of the chief aims in this season’s work was to attempt to show whether it was possible to maintain a herd free from mastitis by segregation. The conditions under which the cows in the experiment would be milked could not be carried out on the average dairy farm, but it had been considered essential that the question of segregation controlling mastitis should first be proved possible under the best possible conditions. The question of the application of the principles involved on farms generally must be considered after it had been proved that it was possible under the best conditions. The herd at the farm’s No. 1 dairy, approximately 95 cows, had been divided into two, group A compris ing the unaffected animals and group B the doubtful or affected cows. These two groups were being run as separate herds, having separate pastures. In the shed the unaffected group would be completely separated from the affected, being in separate yards. The drainage ran from the clean to the affected end of the shed. Rigorous Tests The cows in the clean group were being subjected to rigorous tests to determine the presence of early cases or latent infections. The testing was being carried out on a scale that could not be made practicable in a commercial way except at considerable expense, but was being done in this instance to make sure that the cows in the clean group were really free from the generally accepted causative bacteria. Apart from clinical examinations, the entire herd was being examined bacteriologically each fortnight (quarter samples) and there would be a leucocyte examination each week, also of quarter samples. Special attention was being paid to the shed hygiene and it could be assumed that the milking conditions were very much better than could be expected on the average farm. Group B cows were being used to test the efficacy of certain drugs in the treatment of mastitis.