The production effects and economic evaluation of vaccination against mastitis caused by staphylococci and E.coli in a Hungarian large-scale Holstein-Friesian dairy herd

摘要

The authors present the production effects and economic evaluation of Startvac vaccination against mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Escherichia coli in a Hungarian dairy herd with 700 Holstein-Friesian cows. The vaccination against mastitis in the herd started in 2010. The authors surveyed the milk production and udder health parameters (e.g. clinical mastitis cases, their treatments, quantity of discarded milk, deaths and premature culling of cows) and their economic impact on the farm between 2006 and 2014. At 2014 price level the cost-benefit analysis of Startvac vaccination shows that the yearly loss caused by clinical mastitis in the 4 year long period before the vaccination (2006-2009) was 206.3 (sic) which decreased to an annual amount of 138.0 (sic) per cow between 2011 and 2014 when the entire cow herd was vaccinated. The mastitis vaccination yielded 50.7 (sic) average annual profit (decrease in loss cost of vaccination) per cow between 2011 and 2014. The vaccination as an investment had 3.37 benefit-cost ratio and 236.8% ROI. The results of the economic analysis show that the application of Startvac (R) vaccine in the given herd was beneficial.