Prevention is the most cost-effective strategy of mastitis control but effective treatment of some mastitis cases is necessary for production of high quality milk. When, a cow is obviously sick, treatment is required for humanitarian reasons, but in many instances treatment of mastitis is voluntary. Mastitis should be considered as a disease syndrome that often fluctuates between clinical and subclinical states. Diagnostic methodologies for mastitis are not technically rigorous and the reversion of aclinical case to a subclinical state is often mistakenly considered as a cure. Mild cases of clinical mastitis often appear to resolve spontaneously and milk from cows with subclinical mastitis appears normal and may be legally sold. Therapeutic responses are related to inherent characteristics of the mastitis pathogen, the duration of infection prior to treatment, and efficacy of the selected treatment. The decision to use antibiotics to treat mastitis should be made based on the herd history of mastitis and the likelihood of obtaining a successful cure. The use of antibiotics to treat mild cases of clinical mastitis should be considered when true spontaneous cure is not expected, the probability of cure is high, the rate of recurrence is expected to decrease after treatment and a financial benefit to the farm is expected. The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential benefits of using antibiotic therapy to treat subclinical mastitis infections caused by Gram-positive mastitis pathogens.
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