Prevention and control of mastitis in heifers

摘要

Mastitis is still one of the most devastating diseases on dairy farms. It causes massive economic losses, even on farms with a low incidence of clinical mastitis. It is becoming painfully clear that heifers can also be affected by udder infections, even prior to calving. Approximately 60% of all heifers have an intramammary infection at calving. Some 16% of these heifers will suffer from clinical mastitis during their first lactation and 30% of these mastitis cases will occur within 14 days after calving.