A retrospective study of the incidence of clinical mastitis found in large-scale dairy herds in Korea

Incidence of mastitis is highest in dairy cows and it is a leader of all diseases and the economic losses, in dairy farms. The objective of this study is to analyse the incidence of clinical mastitis using the lactation number, lactation month and season of calving. In this study, we used 3,779 lactation data and animal health records collected from 1990 to 2006 at the National Institute of Animal Science. Out of 3,779 cows, a total of 1,721 cows were reported with clinical mastitis, which was 46.3%. The frequency of mastitis increased from 36.9% from first lactation to 56.0% by the fifth lactation. As many as 766 cows (46.9%) showed a recurrence of mastitis after 14 days, apart for two or more and chronic mastitis that were recorded for 657 cows (20.3%). This came to a total of 3,010 cases that had clinical mastitis in the herd for sixteen years. The distribution of incidence of clinical mastitis was highest during the first month of lactation at 24.4%, and it reached to 43.4% by the third month. The incidence of mastitis was even higher for cows in first lactation, showing 28.6% in the first month, and 42.9 percent by third month of lactation. Cows calved during the summer and winter months showed higher rate of incidence with 59.9% and 57.9% within 30 days of lactation, respectively. It is urgently needed to establish a preventative management for heifer cows during their expected first lactation and the clinical specific dry-period management strategies that influence the rate of clinical mastitis during the next lactation. The aim of this study is to present information that might be useful to improve clinical mastitis prevention.

대규모 젖소목장의 임상형 유방염 발생에 관한 후향적 연구