Introduction to mastitis

Mastitis is inflammation of the mammary gland. While mastitis can occur in any species, it is of particular economic importance to dairy herds. In dairy cows, 30-50% of cows will experience clinical mastitis at least once per lactation. While mastitis takes an obvious toll on individual animal health, the economic losses from decreased milk quality to decreased production to general farm economics are high. It is estimated that a single case of mastitis costs approximately $100-400.  Additionally, mastitis treatment and prevention and control account for the majority of antibiotic use on dairies. With the push for decreasing antibiotic use in food animals, early detection and conservative antibiotic usage are becoming more important to dairy herd management.