The Management Practices Associated With Prevalence and Risk Factors of Mastitis in Large Scale Dairy Farms in Thuringia-Germany 1: Environmental Factors Associated With Prevalence of mastitis

Abstract

The present field study was conducted to investigate the factors that influence the udder health status of dairy cows in Thuringia-Germany. A total of 64542 udder quarter and whole milk samples of which 56950 were udder quarter samples and 7592 were whole milk samples, from 10741 dairy cows in 48 dairy farms in the state of Thuringia were collected and subjected to microbiological investigations. The prevalence of infection was 27.57% of the quarters and 49.59% of the whole milk samples. Staphylococcus aureus and Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS) were the most frequently isolated contagious pathogens. Whereas, Streptococcus dysgalactiae and Esculin Positive Streptococci (EPS, environmental pathogens), showed a prevalence in the udder and udder quarter samples of 12.90/13.90% and 9.0/10.60% respectively. The study found that the risk of developing mastitis was increased when the attacking pathogen was contagious (p < 0.001; OR, 3.11), in small herds (p< 0.001; OR, 2.91) and in purchased heifers (p< 0.001; OR, 2.97). Cows in early stage of lactation as well as summer calving cows were at higher risk of developing mastitis (OR, 2.64 and 2.51 respectively).