How much is subclinical mastitis costing you?

Your herd testing lab can screen your high-SCC herd test milk samples using the StaphGold ELISA to accurately confirm which of your cows are S. aureus-positive.  As S. aureus infections are contagious, prompt action is needed to limit the spread to healthy animals via milking equipment, workers’ hands or re-used milking cloths.

The calculator above provides an indicative cost of subclinical mastitis on lost milk yield alone.  Additional related factors that can result in further adverse impacts on farm profits and animal health include:

• Culling (lost genetic worth and ongoing lost milk production)
• Possible penalties due to elevated bulk milk tank SCC (country-specific)
• Possible missed low-SCC incentive payments (country-specific)
• Acute mastitis cases which may develop (extra labour, cost of antibiotics ± anti-inflammatories, discarded milk, ± veterinary consultation & travel fees)
• Additional dry cow therapy costs
• The age of the infected animal; the impact of losses are higher in younger animals.

NB The rate of self-cure (6%-20%) will be insufficient to overcome the spread of S. aureus infections within your herd.  Action must be taken to minimise the impact of S. aureus in your dairy herd

Footnotes:
1* Total average = 5.8% loss of production attributed to S. aureus (Average in literature due to subclinical S. aureus : 6.1% (Botaro et al., 2015 4.4% conservative loss of production attributed to S. aureus; Heikkilä et al., 2018 7.1%; Tesfaye et al., 2010 6.8%; Koru Study (Flossdorf et al., 2022), 4.7% (Year 1 [1%,3%,5%], Year 2 [6%,7%])