Dairy Mastitis Prevention: Udder Health Programmes

Mastitis is the most costly and common disease of dairy cows, causing significant pain and welfare compromise. Effective prevention requires systematic herd health management.

Key Facts

Mastitis affects up to 40% of dairy cows in some herds, causing pain, reduced milk production and potential culling
Clinical mastitis causes visible swelling, heat, pain and milk changes, while subclinical mastitis is harder to detect
Selective dry cow therapy targets treatment only to infected cows, reducing unnecessary antibiotic use
Teat disinfection, milking machine maintenance and clean housing are the pillars of mastitis prevention
Somatic cell count monitoring provides a herd-level indicator of udder health status

Welfare Considerations

Mastitis causes significant acute and chronic pain in dairy cows. Cows with mastitis show altered behaviour, reduced feed intake, fever and withdrawal from milking. Effective prevention programmes that reduce mastitis incidence are among the highest welfare impact interventions available to dairy farmers, combining animal welfare improvement with economic benefit.

What You Can Do

Support campaigns for mandatory mastitis recording and reporting by dairy farms
Choose dairy products from farms with publicly reported low somatic cell counts
Advocate for effective implementation of selective dry cow therapy guidelines
Support research into mastitis vaccines and novel prevention strategies
Encourage dairy co-operatives to reward farmers for maintaining low somatic cell counts