Klebsiella is a gram-negative bacteria that can cause severe clinical mastitis in dairy cows. If they survive the illness, cows are often culled due to low milk production. This article describes some common ways Klebsiella is transmitted from the environment to teats and strategies on how to prevent Klebsiella mastitis cases on your farm.

The treatment of clinical mastitis has dramatically changed in the approximately 50 years of my veterinary career. The major focus has been on the proper and judicious use of antibiotics in dairy cattle and assuring the public there are no antibiotic residues in the milk supply. 

Knowing the classification of a mastitis case can help you choose which animals to treat, saving you money and improving judicious antibiotic use.

As dairy producers improve their management practices and the milk yield of their herds, mastitis will always be a threat to cows. Before jumping to antibiotic therapy, it is beneficial to provide an anti-inflammatory and pain relief.

Clinical mastitis cure versus bacteriological cure … is there a difference between the two? Does it really matter? In a word, yes. In a few more words, it matters because the difference between achieving one and not both can be the two things that make or break a dairy’s bottom line: lost productivity and increased costs.

Correctly differentiating mastitis from teat sealant residue is important to minimize unnecessary interventions and to make sure we’re using antibiotics judiciously on farms. 

Controlling pathogen outgrowth in recycled manure bedding is possible. When a bacillus-based bedding additive was tested on-farm, a significant reduction in bulk tank SCC and mastitis cases was noticed.

Approximately 50% of dairy cows, the pinnacle of metabolic athletes within the species, will experience a production-associated disease (e.g., mastitis, metritis, ketosis, displaced abomasum) in every lactation. Even in the best facilities with the best management, mastitis is an inherent risk that can’t be eliminated, so our aim is to reduce it.

With 10% to 35% of cows experiencing mastitis each lactation, grappling with its cost is a reality of milking cows. A Canadian study showed mastitis costs dairy farmers roughly $660 per cow per year, making it the costliest disease of dairy cattle.