Mastitis is the most common and costly disease in dairy cattle and a major welfare concern. Evidence-based prevention through hygiene, cow comfort, and selective dry cow therapy significantly reduces disease burden.
Mastitis causes significant suffering to a large proportion of dairy cows annually. The pain of acute clinical mastitis - fever, systemic illness, and inflamed, painful udder tissue - is substantial and well-documented. The chronic pain of subclinical mastitis is less visible but affects welfare consistently over time. Prevention through cow comfort, hygiene, and herd health monitoring is both the welfare imperative and the economic interest of producers. Farms that achieve low mastitis rates demonstrate that high standards are achievable - the welfare gap between best-practice and average farms reflects management choices, not inherent production system constraints.