Developing a practice-based microbiological laboratory to guide mastitis treatment on dairy farms

Abstract

Culture-based treatment of mastitis has been advocated to reduce expenses of treatment and discarded milk and to improve treatment results. Ideally, identification of mastitis pathogens should be performed in a laboratory accessible to dairy farms within a reasonable amount of time. Results can usually be made available to farms the following day, before the time of day that treatments are normally administered. Mastitis pathogens can be successfully identified in a practice-based laboratory using standardized methods. Examples of specific, step-by-step methods, including needed materials, are described to aid in developing and operating a mastitis laboratory. A novel method of reporting results utilizing Google Docs is described.