A Cow- and Herd-specific Bio-Economic Model of Intramammary Infectionsin Dairy Cows

摘要

Mastitis, or mtramarnmary infection (IMF), is one of the most significant diseases in dairy herds worldwide (Seegers et al. 2003). It is caused by environmental and contagious bacteria. Simulation models have proven useful for evaluating the effect ofdifferent control strategies (e.g. Down et al. 2016). However, previous published models are not cow-specific and therefore not so detailed in the simulation of host-pathogen interactions. If a simulation model is to be used by dairy farmers as a decision-making tool, it needs to be cow-specific because daily management decisions are made on cow level. Furthermore, as IMI is often caused by more than one pathogen in the same herd, such a simulation model should also be pathogen-specific to account fordifferent transmission characteristics and treatment effects. Moreover, as different strains of pathogens can have different transmission routes (i.e. environmental, contagious or mixed), the model should be able to reflect this diversity. Our objectivewas thus to create a pathogen-, cow- and herd-specific bio-economic simulation model that could simulate multiple pathogens and strains at the same time within a dairy herd. This model should be able to simulate realistic scenarios for specific herds, thus being a tool for decision-making for individual farmers.