Dry Cow Therapy and Welfare: Selective Treatment Approaches

Dry cow therapy is used to treat and prevent mastitis in dairy cows during the non-milking period. Moving from blanket to selective treatment improves antibiotic stewardship without compromising welfare.

Key Facts

Traditional blanket dry cow therapy treated all cows with antibiotics at drying off regardless of udder health
Selective dry cow therapy treats only cows with evidence of infection or high somatic cell counts
The transition to selective therapy requires robust udder health monitoring and decision frameworks
Internal teat sealants provide protection against new infections for all cows during the dry period
UK veterinary guidance recommends selective dry cow therapy as the default approach

Welfare Considerations

Blanket antibiotic dry cow therapy, while effective at reducing mastitis, represents unnecessary antibiotic use in cows with healthy udders. The welfare principle of using effective treatments when needed while avoiding unnecessary interventions supports selective therapy. The welfare risk of selective therapy is that cows with undetected subclinical infections at drying off may develop clinical mastitis in the dry period without antibiotic protection. Robust monitoring including milk testing before drying off and teat sealant use in all cows provides equivalent mastitis protection to blanket therapy while substantially reducing antibiotic use. The welfare benefit to cows of reducing unnecessary antibiotic exposure includes lower risk of antibiotic-related side effects and maintenance of healthy gut flora.

What You Can Do

Support dairy farms transitioning to selective dry cow therapy with appropriate monitoring systems
Advocate for veterinary herd health planning requirements in farm assurance standards
Engage with dairy industry bodies about supporting selective therapy adoption
Support research into rapid mastitis diagnostic tools that enable better treatment selection decisions
Choose dairy products from farms with documented antibiotic stewardship programmes