Mastitis control programme in the developing dairy industry of tropical lowland Bolivia.
Mastitis is an important disease in developing dairy industries. This paper describes a commercial mastitis control programme in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, based upon the five-point mastitis control plan and bulk tank somatic cell count (BTSCC) monitoring. Twelve farms which participated on the programme for 6 years are considered. Mean annual BTSCC fell steadily from 1,200,000 cells/ml to 461,000 cells/ml over this time. This progressive improvement was probably a result of increasing use of and attention to detail in mastitis control practices. The control of subclinical mastitis improved in both hand-milked and machine-milked herds, though hand-milked herds consistently produced milk of higher BTSCC. The mastitis programme did not appear to influence the incidence of clinical mastitis. The concludes that a simple mastitis programme based on the five-point plan and BTSCC monitoring can be commercially implemented and effectively control subclinical mastitis in a tropical, developing country.
Laboratorio de Investigación Diagnóstico Veterinario (LIDIVET), Santa Cruz, Kerby PJ.
D F
DF
Brown
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D
Ardaya
H
H
Ribera
A M
AM
Cuellar
P J
PJ
Kerby
D000818:Animals; D001838:Bolivia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002417:Cattle; D002452:Cell Count / Q000662:veterinary; D003612:Dairying / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D015994:Incidence; D007774:Lactation; D008414:Mastitis, Bovine / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008892:Milk / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D014329:Tropical Climate