New initiative smooths the way for better mastitis control

Dairy farmers can now access automated mastitis reports about their herd from their milk recording organisation thanks to a new cross-industry initiative.

Somatic cell count and clinical mastitis treatment records are? analysed through the Mastitis Pattern Analysis Tool (MPAT), and the results made available to farmers after each milk recording.

The MPAT analyses individual herd data to identify whether the predominant infection pattern is environmental or contagious in the lactation or dry period, seasonality of infection, and infection in heifers.

This will allow farmers and vets to work together to identify the pattern of mastitis in their herd and control measures to be focused on where they are most effective.

Jenny Gibbons, Senior Animal Health & Welfare Scientist said: “Sending pattern information automatically to farmers and their advisors makes the process a whole lot smoother. As mastitis is still the biggest disease cost on dairy farms, this analysis will help make sure actions to improve mastitis control are targeted to individual farms.”

The project became possible after the University of Nottingham secured funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and worked with AHDB’s Mastitis Control Plan team to update the tool and link it to REMEDY (a data analytics platform developed by a QMMS and University of Nottingham project funded through Innovate UK). Ongoing support will be provided by QMMS.

In co-operation with CIS, NMR and QMMS the investment enabled the development of an automated data transfer pipeline between these UK’s milk recording organisations and a cloud-based mastitis pattern analysis tool, removing the need to process data manually.

Farmers can register for the new service at https://cloud.remedy.farm/mpat to start receiving herd mastitis reports after their next milk recording.

Dave Bacon, who farms over 500 dairy cows in Nottinghamshire, said: “The Mastitis Pattern Analysis report gives us a useful snapshot of our mastitis levels and udder health after each month’s milk recording. With it being automatically generated, we were able to quickly implement changes to management to reduce clinical mastitis cases in early lactation, following the identification of a seasonal dry period pattern”.

Jake Thompson from LLM Farm Vets, part of the VetPartners group who were a key part of the project team, said: “The great thing about this tool is that both the farmer and myself are sent a report automatically after each milk recording. It allows us to have a targeted conversation about udder health as soon as we have their latest data available.

 “If the mastitis pattern shows there is more of a problem in early lactation from infections picked up from the environment during the dry period, we will then look more closely at how the dry cows are being managed.

“Taking action to reduce the risk to dry cows will be more effective than changing routines in the milking parlour on that farm. On other farms the main current problem may be completely different. Mastitis Pattern Analysis helps us to make Mastitis Control Plans farm specific”.

Mastitis treatment and control is one of the largest costs to the GB dairy industry and is a significant factor in dairy cow welfare. Mastitis causes a cow’s udder tissue to become inflamed and painful. Reducing its occurrence helps produce more high-quality milk and increases your herd’s saleable milk yield.

The best way to control mastitis is to protect cows from getting new infections, which can come from the environment or from other infected cows. Working out when cows get infected, and the source of infections, is the first step.

Realistic goals for your farm can be set for the next year, based on pattern analysis results and the management practices relevant to the main pattern of mastitis you identify. The farm team can then make an action plan, including a timeline and assigning responsibility for key actions.

You can then continue the cycle of feedback to assess whether the changes have worked and monitor to see if the infection pattern changes.

The Mastitis Pattern Analysis Tool identifies problem areas and potential risks to udder health, giving farmers and their vets a way of tracking progress in the herd.

The Tool is a key part of AHDB’s Mastitis Control QuarterPRO initiative, which provides tools and resources for farm teams to meet their vet and/or advisors once a quarter and work together to produce an action plan to improve mastitis control.