Mastitis is the most costly and common disease in dairy cattle, causing significant pain, reduced milk production, and unnecessary culling. Prevention through hygiene and management is far preferable to treatment.
Mastitis causes pain that is often underappreciated because subclinical cases show no visible signs yet still cause significant udder discomfort. A cow producing milk with a chronically elevated somatic cell count may be living with persistent low-grade pain across multiple lactations. The sheer scale of mastitis in the dairy industry represents an enormous aggregate welfare burden that improved prevention could substantially reduce.