Dr Kiro Petrovski

University of Adelaide, Roseworthy

Mastitis and colostrum management update

Biography

– Started working with dairy cows at age of 11• First independent calving • First cow surgery at 16

– Work on mastitis 19 years• Mastitis treatment products development since 2004

• Bomac, Bayer, Elanco, Pfizer, Homeopathic farm supplies, LuodaPharma

• Organic vs. conventional farming• Causes of mastitis• Economics of mastitis• Mastitis management

Biography cont’d

– Herd health consultancy• NZ (2006-2013)

– Mastitis consultancy• NZ (2006-2015)• Europe (2005, 2008, 2014)• USA (2007)• Argentina (2007-2012)

– Mastitis and herd health problem solving (2004-2015)• 11 countries

– Farmer and veterinarians discussion groups and workshops (1997-2016)

Up-dates on calf management and mastitis for dairy farmers

Dr Kiro R PetrovskiDVM, MVSc, PGDipVCSc, PhD

Senior Lecturer

August 2016

kiro.petrovski@adelaide.edu.au

Mt Gambier15 September 2016

Roadmap

– Preventive measures to control outbreaks– Best management of colostrum for healthy calves– What is new in calf management

• At Roseworthy– What is new in mastitis treatment

• At Roseworthy– On-farm strategies to maximise mastitis management and minimise cost

Preventive measures to control outbreaks of calf disorders

– Failure of passive transfer• Failure to get quickly enough

good quality colostrum– Calf diarrhoea

• Acute (infectious, nutritional)• Chronic (parasitic, nutritional)

– Infection of the umbilical remnant• Navel ill

– Septic arthritis• Joint ill

– Enzootic pneumonia– General sickness and weak calves

• Bacterial meningitis & Septicaemia

• Metabolic acidosis

Nutrition

Quality of stockmans

hip

Calf diarrhoea

Calf susceptibili

ty

Pathogen pathogenic

ity

Environment and

husbandry

Infectious load

Modified from Bazeley, In Practice, , March 2003

Calf mortality rates

– Dairy• 2-60% per farm per year• Probably best KPI 6%

– Beef• 1-7% per farm per year• Probably best KPI 2%• Excludes predation

Risk factors summarised

Controllable Partially controllable Non-controllable

Calf resistance- passive transfer of immunity

Dystocia Weather

Quality of management Calving hypoxia Season

Hygiene Type of housing Twinning

Prevalence of disorders in the herd- Infectious pressure

Calving facilities

Vaccination protocols Calf carer

Management of pregnant dams Calf size

Availability of calving assistance Age of the dam

Origin of calves Staff limitations

Feeding management- dams- calves

Dam-offspring bond- not important for dairy?

Calving(normal, dystocia)

WeatherEnvironment(contamination)

Suckling

Colostrum intake

Navel dressing

Clean transport

Energy

Feeding

Milk / replacers

Pasture

Solids

Sick calves

Ventilation

Pen management

Bedding

Housing and stockmanship

Ventilation

Pen management

Bedding

Hygiene

Feeding equipment

Watering equipment

Pens / pasture

Calf rearer

Feedstuffs storage

Calf survival

Prevention of calf disorders

– Vaccination of dams– Timely assistance with calving difficulties– Colostrum management

• 3Qs (quickly, quality and quantity)– Navel management

• Spray with proper navel stuff (not teat disinfectant)– Biosecurity

• Prevent entry and spread of disease– Hygiene– Comfort

Best management of colostrum for healthy calves

– 10% of BW within first 12 hours• Not less than 7% of BW• Depends on quality of colostrum

– Blood levels of IgG (18-24 hr old calves)• Adequate passive transfer >8 g/L or ≥10 g/L• Partial failure 4-8 g/L• Complete failure <4 g/L

– Blood levels of total protein (18-24 hr old calves)• Adequate passive transfer >55 g/L• Partial failure 50-55 g/L• Complete failure <50 g/L

Antibody concentration in colostrum/milk

Why colostrum and Colostrum absorption

– Why colostrum• Immunity• Nutrition• Programing

– Low proteolytic activity in neonatal GIT– Anti-trypsin component in colostrum

• Reaching the small intestine– First 6-24-36 hrs specialised enterocytes

• Absorption of immunoglobulins• Later specialised enterocytes sloughed• Replaced by normal enterocytes

Quality of colostrum

– Hygiene essential– Adequate colostrum

• min 50g immunoglobulin/L – Colostrometer

• Red = inadequate• Yellow = borderline• Green = adequate

– Brix refractometer• >20-22-25 indicates adequate colostrum

Colostrum requirements

– First 6 hours 100g IgG– 6-18 hours additional 100 g IgG

Quality of colostrum

IgG content

Volume for >100 G IgG

Excellent >90 g/L >1.2 L

Good 65-90 g/L

2 L

Moderate 40-65 g/L

3 L

Poor <40 g/L >4 L

Uptake of colostrum IgG content

Excellent <4 hours

Good 4-12 hours

Moderate 12-24 hours

Poor 24-36 hours

Ceases >36 hours

Milk volume in first lactation

– Effect of body weight at first calving (HF primiparous cows)Weight

Passivetransfer

Mean herd milk yield (litres)

<5,000 5,000-6,000 >6,000 Mean

<480 Inadequate 3,833 (n=80) 4,172 (n=308) 4,910 (n=95) 4,261

480-520 Partial failure 4,063 (n=27) 4,388 (n=259) 5,224 (n=81) 4,548

>520 Adequate 4,337 (n=12) 4,549 (n=239) 5,402 (n=92) 4,770

Difference between adequate and inadequate colostrum intake = 509L

in the first lactationHow much for the life?

What is new on calf management at RW

– Estimate colostrum quality locally• Age of dam• Breed• Season• Colostrum yield

– Estimate colostrum intake locally• Effect of cross-fostering• Effect of colostrum mixing• Effect of diluting colostrum

– Estimate epigenetic programing effect of colostrum• Production, fertility and product quality

– Pilot study finished

Pilot study results

– Near Mt Compass, SA• HF only

– 30 cows colostrum• Production of immunoglobulins cow dependent

– 15 calves, 3 groups• Original dam full colostrum• Foster dam full colostrum• Foster dam half colostrum

– Half quality colostrum resulted in failure of passive transfer– No significant difference between feeding from original or foster dam

detected– NOTE: small sample size

Call for assistance

– Dairy and beef farmers to do this again on larger scale– Next year colostrum quality only in first instance– Planned to do full repeated study year after this

• We provide all sampling and testing equipment• Test individual cows and colostrum given to the calf/calves

• We need approx. 4 farms (preferred different breeds) to host 2 students for the calving season (spring and autumn)• Can be the same farm with split calving• But can be 4 different farms each time

– Involved farms will get first study results (before anyone else sees them)• If interested can get colostrum quality results as you go• Can do measurement of total protein per calf at approx. 24 hours age (need

AEC approval)

What is new in mastitis treatment at RW

– New mastitis treatment development• Antimicrobial usually used as rumen modifier• 5-7 years away

– We detected novel resistance pattern in CNS isolated for the SE of SA• Early stages of work• Risk of mastitis treatment failure• Common mechanism for humans, plants and animals

• Potential to cause public and occupational health risks• Farmers, farm staff, veterinarians

• No difference form other CNS morphologically

On-farm strategies to maximise mastitis management and minimise cost

– Follow Countdown 2020 guidelines– Have herd health management

programme in place– Call promptly when problems arise– Proper management of cows at

drying off• Timely culling• Nutrition• Dry cow product• Use of internal teat sealants

– Proper management around calving (transition cow 3-4 weeks either side of calving)• Nutrition (prevent milk fever and changes in

appetite)• Milking (full milking from start ASAP) and

milking procedure (enjoyable experience for the cow)

• Detection of mastitis (palpate from milking 1 & RMT from milking 5)

• Teat disinfection in high concentration• Hygiene

KNOW YOUR ENEMY – take regularly milk samplesProperly train your staff in detection, treatment and management of mastitis

Call for assistance

– We need a minimum of 10 samples of bulk milk and hospital mob separately per farm• Take sample, freeze, deliver to your vet• By 31st October 2016

– We will provide you with free information on your Mycoplasma status by 30 November 2016

– If you interested in testing you CNS resistance profile let us know• We will need samples from you• Free of cost• Delivery only• Unfortunately, if other bacteria involved we

do not report back – testing only for CNS and Mycoplasma

– Do you have plenty of calves with• Tilted heads• Joint ills• Pneumonia

– We can help to test for Mycoplasma in your herd

– Talk to your vet to get in contact with us

– We need appropriate samples• Free testing – takes bit longer as it is a

research lab• If urgent we will try our best to

accommodate this

Do you have herd level problem with health

– Talk to your vet– We can be involved in your herd health management programme– We are here to support you and your industry– We can come to your farm

• Students regularly involved• Charge for the travel and time only, no additional fees• If few of you get together much cheaper (travel cost divided between all)

– Talk to DairySA• They can get in contact with us for further education events