An investigation of the efficacy of a polyvalent mastitis vaccine using different vaccination regimens in the UK

Publications

Cattle

Authors

Bradley, A.; Breen, J.; Payne, B.; White, V.; Green, M.

The utility of a commercially available, polyvalent

mastitis vaccine was investigated under UK field conditions.

Use of the vaccine was not associated with a decrease

in the incidence of clinical or subclinical mastitis

in the first 120 DIM. However, vaccinated cows were

significantly less likely to experience severe clinical

mastitis and produced significantly more milk and milk

solids than unvaccinated herdmates.

Clinical and subclinical mastitis remain a major cause of financial loss to the dairy industry and a significant challenge to the dairy producer, with a large number of herds still experiencing unacceptable levels of disease (Bradley et al., 2007b). Several treatments and control measures are available to the practitioner but these are often apparently insufficient to control the disease on farm (Green et al., 2007).