Inserting teat sealer into the teats of springing heifers is a relatively new concept in Ireland but has been practiced in New Zealand for many years. The idea is that the teat sealer forms a barrier to prevent dirt and bacteria going up the teat canal and causing an infection in the udder.
Heifers are high risk for udder infections in the pre-calving period because they tend to be springing up for longer so are more exposed to infections. Also, unlike most cows, heifers don’t receive long-acting dry cow therapy so there are no antibiotics in the udder to fight off any bugs that might enter.
With little or no Irish data on the effectiveness of teat sealing heifers, Niamh Ryan from Teagasc Moorepark started a pilot study last winter to test the method on four herds.
Niamh’s study involved 240 first-calving heifers. Three of the herds are based in Moorepark where the heifers are wintered on cubicles. One of the herds is the Greenfield Farm in Kilkenny, where heifers are wintered in a slatted shed belonging to the contract rearer up to two weeks before calving and are then brought to an out-wintering pad for calving.
There were two aspects to the study. Firstly, to see what level of infection was present in the udder pre-calving, and secondly what effect teat sealing pre-calving had on subsequent infections during the year.
Procedure
Heifers were teat-sealed between four and six weeks before calving. Depending on the facilities available on the farm, half of the herds were teat-sealed in the parlour with the remainder teat-sealed in a crush.
Niamh said it is critically important that the surface area of the teats is spotlessly clean as there is a very high risk of introducing infection into the udder while teat sealing. They used cotton wool soaked in methylated spirits to clean and disinfect the teat ends.
All four quarters on each heifer were sampled prior to teat sealing. Only two quarters from each heifer was teat sealed and the other two quarters were used as a control.
Results
Niamh presented some of the results at the conference workshop. The first thing she said was that it was only a pilot study. To get more accurate results, a couple of thousand animals would need to be tested.
There are three strands of results from the study. Firstly, Niamh looked at the bacteria present in the udder at various time-points, pre- and post-calving. Secondly, she looked at SCC levels and finally she looked at clinical cases of mastitis during the first lactation.
On bacteria levels, she looked at two types of pathogens – contagious, such as staph aureus, and environmental, such as strep uberis.
At the pre-calving stage, 10% of quarters had a contagious pathogen present. This was before any teats were sealed. At the first milking, 5% of teat-sealed quarters had contagious pathogens present while 13% of untreated quarters had contagious pathogens present. The increased level of contagious pathogens present in the non-treated quarters persisted into mid and late lactation.
On environmental pathogens, untreated quarters were over three times more likely to have an environmental pathogen present relative to a treated quarter. Results are not yet available on the SCC and clinical mastitis findings from the study so it is too early to say if the lower levels of bacteria present in the teat-sealed quarters were correlated with lower SCC and clinical mastitis.
Don Crowley
Teagasc milk quality specialist Don Crowley also spoke at the workshop. Don gave farmers some practical tips about how to improve milk quality.
The first he said is that 50 to 60% of all new infections caused by environmental pathogens occur in the dry period and over 50% of all clinical mastitis cases in the first 100 days of lactation originated in the dry period.
With this in mind, he said that dry period management is critical for good milk quality during lactation. He pointed out that one of the big improvements in milk quality over the last few years has come about in herds where the heifers are calved in a compact group before the main herd.
“Calving the heifers before the cows allows for extra time to be spent with them, on preparation and hygiene and also ensuring that they are adequately milked out. Because they calve together in one block, there is less risk of infection transferring to them from older cows in the herd.”
Don advised all farmers to use the California milk test or paddle test before letting freshly calved cows into the bulk tank. He said you will occasionally find cases where all four quarters display high readings, but in such circumstances he would advise farmers to hold on treatment for a few days and then re-test.
He encouraged farmers to milk-record four times a year and to start early, saying many farmers don’t start milk recording until the end of April and this is too late as many cows will be calved more than 60 days at that point.
He recommends farmers to milk record in the first week of March, the end of April, mid-summer and again at drying off.
Don says there are two pages in the milk recording summary farm report that are particularly relevant for milk quality. The first page shows the average SCC per lactation, the number of cows with an SCC greater than 200,000 and the number of recorded treatments and it also shows the trend of SCC over time.
The mastitis incidence problem cow report ranks the cows in order of their contribution to the herd average, taking into account their yield and SCC level. It also shows their average SCC over the previous lactation which can help to highlight housing problems.
On milking facilities, he said milking liners are crucially important. A new set of liners should be installed before milking commences in January and again in July or after 2,200 milkings. One of the main issues Don encounters is twisted liners. The two arrows on liners should be aligned.
When asked if you should pull liners out a notch in between liner changes, he cautioned against such practices, saying that putting extra tension on liners can cause teat end damage, particularly in heifers. He said it is better to replace liners more frequently.
He also cautioned against purchasing spurious liners as there is a difference in shell sizes between makes of milking machines and generally speaking each manufacturer supplies liners that are suited to their machines. The main issue with spurious liners is that they can be loose at the barrel.
The next big issue in parlours is that relays get stuck over the winter. Before any cows are milked, each unit should be checked to see that the pulsation is working correctly. The easiest way to do this is through the “thumb test”, where you insert your thumb into the liner to test pulsation rate.
Don says he sees good results where disinfectant lime is used once a week on cubicles, even during the dry period. Ordinary cubicle lime should be used every other day. He says that just using hydrated lime is too hard on cow’s teats so it should be avoided.
Lower levels of bacteria were present in quarters treated with teat sealer than those with no teat sealer.We do not know whether this led to lower SCC and clinical cases during lactation.Over 50% of all mastitis cases originate in the dry period.Liners should be changed and pulsation should be checked prior to the start of calving. Read more
Read full Milk Quality Focus here
Inserting teat sealer into the teats of springing heifers is a relatively new concept in Ireland but has been practiced in New Zealand for many years. The idea is that the teat sealer forms a barrier to prevent dirt and bacteria going up the teat canal and causing an infection in the udder.
Heifers are high risk for udder infections in the pre-calving period because they tend to be springing up for longer so are more exposed to infections. Also, unlike most cows, heifers don’t receive long-acting dry cow therapy so there are no antibiotics in the udder to fight off any bugs that might enter.
With little or no Irish data on the effectiveness of teat sealing heifers, Niamh Ryan from Teagasc Moorepark started a pilot study last winter to test the method on four herds.
Niamh’s study involved 240 first-calving heifers. Three of the herds are based in Moorepark where the heifers are wintered on cubicles. One of the herds is the Greenfield Farm in Kilkenny, where heifers are wintered in a slatted shed belonging to the contract rearer up to two weeks before calving and are then brought to an out-wintering pad for calving.
There were two aspects to the study. Firstly, to see what level of infection was present in the udder pre-calving, and secondly what effect teat sealing pre-calving had on subsequent infections during the year.
Procedure
Heifers were teat-sealed between four and six weeks before calving. Depending on the facilities available on the farm, half of the herds were teat-sealed in the parlour with the remainder teat-sealed in a crush.
Niamh said it is critically important that the surface area of the teats is spotlessly clean as there is a very high risk of introducing infection into the udder while teat sealing. They used cotton wool soaked in methylated spirits to clean and disinfect the teat ends.
All four quarters on each heifer were sampled prior to teat sealing. Only two quarters from each heifer was teat sealed and the other two quarters were used as a control.
Results
Niamh presented some of the results at the conference workshop. The first thing she said was that it was only a pilot study. To get more accurate results, a couple of thousand animals would need to be tested.
There are three strands of results from the study. Firstly, Niamh looked at the bacteria present in the udder at various time-points, pre- and post-calving. Secondly, she looked at SCC levels and finally she looked at clinical cases of mastitis during the first lactation.
On bacteria levels, she looked at two types of pathogens – contagious, such as staph aureus, and environmental, such as strep uberis.
At the pre-calving stage, 10% of quarters had a contagious pathogen present. This was before any teats were sealed. At the first milking, 5% of teat-sealed quarters had contagious pathogens present while 13% of untreated quarters had contagious pathogens present. The increased level of contagious pathogens present in the non-treated quarters persisted into mid and late lactation.
On environmental pathogens, untreated quarters were over three times more likely to have an environmental pathogen present relative to a treated quarter. Results are not yet available on the SCC and clinical mastitis findings from the study so it is too early to say if the lower levels of bacteria present in the teat-sealed quarters were correlated with lower SCC and clinical mastitis.
Don Crowley
Teagasc milk quality specialist Don Crowley also spoke at the workshop. Don gave farmers some practical tips about how to improve milk quality.
The first he said is that 50 to 60% of all new infections caused by environmental pathogens occur in the dry period and over 50% of all clinical mastitis cases in the first 100 days of lactation originated in the dry period.
With this in mind, he said that dry period management is critical for good milk quality during lactation. He pointed out that one of the big improvements in milk quality over the last few years has come about in herds where the heifers are calved in a compact group before the main herd.
“Calving the heifers before the cows allows for extra time to be spent with them, on preparation and hygiene and also ensuring that they are adequately milked out. Because they calve together in one block, there is less risk of infection transferring to them from older cows in the herd.”
Don advised all farmers to use the California milk test or paddle test before letting freshly calved cows into the bulk tank. He said you will occasionally find cases where all four quarters display high readings, but in such circumstances he would advise farmers to hold on treatment for a few days and then re-test.
He encouraged farmers to milk-record four times a year and to start early, saying many farmers don’t start milk recording until the end of April and this is too late as many cows will be calved more than 60 days at that point.
He recommends farmers to milk record in the first week of March, the end of April, mid-summer and again at drying off.
Don says there are two pages in the milk recording summary farm report that are particularly relevant for milk quality. The first page shows the average SCC per lactation, the number of cows with an SCC greater than 200,000 and the number of recorded treatments and it also shows the trend of SCC over time.
The mastitis incidence problem cow report ranks the cows in order of their contribution to the herd average, taking into account their yield and SCC level. It also shows their average SCC over the previous lactation which can help to highlight housing problems.
On milking facilities, he said milking liners are crucially important. A new set of liners should be installed before milking commences in January and again in July or after 2,200 milkings. One of the main issues Don encounters is twisted liners. The two arrows on liners should be aligned.
When asked if you should pull liners out a notch in between liner changes, he cautioned against such practices, saying that putting extra tension on liners can cause teat end damage, particularly in heifers. He said it is better to replace liners more frequently.
He also cautioned against purchasing spurious liners as there is a difference in shell sizes between makes of milking machines and generally speaking each manufacturer supplies liners that are suited to their machines. The main issue with spurious liners is that they can be loose at the barrel.
The next big issue in parlours is that relays get stuck over the winter. Before any cows are milked, each unit should be checked to see that the pulsation is working correctly. The easiest way to do this is through the “thumb test”, where you insert your thumb into the liner to test pulsation rate.
Don says he sees good results where disinfectant lime is used once a week on cubicles, even during the dry period. Ordinary cubicle lime should be used every other day. He says that just using hydrated lime is too hard on cow’s teats so it should be avoided.
Lower levels of bacteria were present in quarters treated with teat sealer than those with no teat sealer.We do not know whether this led to lower SCC and clinical cases during lactation.Over 50% of all mastitis cases originate in the dry period.Liners should be changed and pulsation should be checked prior to the start of calving. Read more
Read full Milk Quality Focus here
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