Mammitis Control

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7061, 21 January 1933, Page 4

Mammitis Control

CHECKING SPREAD OF DISEASE.

A system of controlling tlicir herds with a view to reducing the incidence of contagious mammitis has been adopted by a number of Waikato dairy farmers, writes the Waikato correspondent of • the Weekly News. Samples of milk are taken from each cow in the herd and are examined under tho microscope in a laboratory in Hamilton. All tho cOws are then graded into groups. The normal animals, those that kavo been found to be free of disease, are milked first, the slightly affected cows are milked second, and the cows acutely affected are left to the- last. A strict scheme of dairy hygieno is adopted. Everything used in the shod is scrupulously cleaned and disinfectod, so that at tho next milking tho normal cows have little or no ehanco of becoming infected. Where the system has been in operation for somo time tho owners have reduced culling almost to a negligible point, and tho annual yield of the herd has been definitely increased without replacements. One farmer who has tried out the system is Mr. E. F. Peacocke, of Western Lea, Hamilton. Mr, Peacocke milks 560 cows in six herds. Tho first examination at tho commencement 'of the .193.1-32 season disclosed serious infection in each herd. It was not until the samples of tho individual cow’s milk were microscopically examined that the presence of the disease was suspected. A strict control was immediately adopted, with the result that no quarters in any herd were lost through cross-infection during the season. Further infection was immediately stopped, and when the losses of the previous season were taken as a basis of comparison, it was found that the cost of putting the control system into operation was saved five, times over, apart from the satisfaction of knowing that only pure milk was supplied by the herd. Remedial measures in connection with cows affected wore taken in hand. Sterilisation of clinically acute quarters by means of an anti-virus, was undertaken, and the treatment was continued until the disease had disappeared. In cases where affection had reached too advanced a stage the animal was culled from the herd. The control system has been adopted by Mr. ,T. J. Patterson, who is milking a largo herd at To Puninga, and. as in the case of Mr. Peacocke, gratifying success is being mot with. Over 6000 cows are now subject to the system in the-Waikato, and definite progress is being made in checking the ravages of mammitis and other udder abnormalities among the herds of the district. The control system was initiated by Mr. T. A. Blake, of the Department of Agriculture, Hamilton.