Mastitis is the most costly disease in dairy farming and a major welfare concern. Effective pain management and preventive protocols reduce suffering while improving production outcomes.
Mastitis welfare is doubly compromised: by the infection itself, which causes acute and chronic pain, and by the persistent underuse of analgesia in affected cows. Clinical mastitis causes local inflammation, teat pain, and systemic illness in severe cases — it is not merely a production problem. The evidence that analgesic treatment (particularly meloxicam) improves feed intake, milk production recovery, and welfare indicators is clear, yet adoption remains incomplete. Prevention through teat health management, effective dry-off protocols, and maintaining housing hygiene reduces the frequency of welfare events. Pain management during clinical mastitis is both ethically required and commercially beneficial — cows treated with analgesics recover faster.