The new milk culturing service from Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) identifies the specific type of bacteria present in a milk sample. Further tests are then undertaken to determine the most effective antibiotic to control that specific bacteria.

Shane McElroy, Glanbia vet, explained that the new service can be used to tackle individual cases of clinical mastitis or high somatic cell count (SCC) problems in the herd. He also recommends the service as a means to determine the most appropriate dry cow antibiotic for a particular herd.

“Every herd is different and the first step is to identify the bacteria causing the mastitis or SCC problem,” he said.

Shane recommends taking milk samples from the eight to 10 cows in the herd with the highest individual SCC. Farmers are then provided with a report identifying the problem bacteria, control options to prevent new infections, as well as a recommendation for the most appropriate antibiotic to treat these cows.

He said that using this scientific approach in tackling mastitis and high cell count will boost profitability by reducing the herd SCC, avoiding costly milk withdrawal periods and reducing the culling rate.

From a dairy industry perspective, the use of this science-based approach to antibiotic usage will help in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the process by which micro-organisms (bacteria in particular) – develop resistance to antibiotics. This results in antibiotics losing their effectiveness against the diseases that they previously cured.

GII’s new milk culturing service is run from the dairy company’s accredited laboratory in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. The laboratory has helped to drive a major improvement in the average milk SCC in the Glanbia catchment. Unlike most other processors, GII suppliers receive a text message with an SCC test result for every milk collection.

Every day, milk samples from 2,500 milk collections are brought to the highly efficient and well-invested GII laboratory in Dungarvan – every sample that arrives in the accredited lab is tested on the same day for a minimum of six different parameters and results are delivered by text to 5,000 farmers across 21 counties.

For information, contact Pat O’Keeffe, head of farmer relations, on 087-2414970.