Strep ag Preventive Measures

Strategies to eliminate Strep agalactiae from your herd

# Keep all positive cows as a separate herd and milk last, treat with 2 bottles of Mamyzin. We will re culture these cows in 4 weeks, consider drying off any of these animals if possible or culling.

# Ensure all cows in the herd are fully milked out at each milking, after milking, cows should have less than 100mls of milk left in their udders.

# Teat spraying should cover the whole teat barrel on average you should be using 

20 mls per cow per milking, teat spray should be mixed correctly. Contact Vicki Smart at NSW Agriculture ( 444641251, 0427107058) as she can organise testing of your teat spray to ensure it is at the correct strength. Do not increase the concentration as this may burn the teats. Check with Vicki first.  

# Any fresh calving cows that have not had Dry Cow should be treated with Mamyzin. All cows that are dried off should be treated with Dry Cow containing Cloxacillin.

# All liners should be changed every 2500 milkings about every 5 months.

# Have the machines checked every 3 months.

# Improve the lighting in the dairy.

# I also suggest that once weekly prior to the cups been placed on each cow that the udder is stripped to check for mastitis.   

# Ensure that washing off the plant is done correctly and at the correct temperature, contact your milking machine technician for a correct protocol. 

# We will also have to investigate cows that have constantly high cell counts  as these are probably infected with Staph aureus, if they had a high cell count last lactation and were treated with dry cow and are still high then they will be most likely be incurable and may have to be culled.

If all the strategies above are followed through then it most likely take about 12 to 18 months to reduce your cell count. The success of the out come depends highly on the operator following each guide line. If you have any further questions please contact me.

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