A new Hipra University course dealing with the goat industry was held last May focussing on “Advances in mastitis control”. Over 20 veterinarians specialising in milk quality from all over Spain attended this course.

During the course, which was given by Miguel Ángel Sanz, Small Ruminants specialist at HIPRA, the new focus which has to be given to improving milk quality and the methods of prevention of each of the control points were explained.

The session also included a workshop in which the participants calculated what the cost of each of the control points was.

The result was that the cost of a mastitis prevention programme is 61.23€ per animal and lactation, 32.23€ of which is accounted by the elimination of animals because of mastitis infections and only 4.14€ by the vaccination programme with VIMCO®, vaccine against caprine and ovine mastitis.

Other important data that were presented during the session were the first results of vaccination with VIMCO® in Malagueña goats.

The study showed a 35% reduction in the individual SCC (Somatic Cell Count). The percentage of animals below 500,000 cells/ml increased from 32% to 46% following the use of VIMCO® and the percentage with over 2 million decreased from 27% to only 13%.

Prevention has been shown to be the way towards the economic optimization of farms and the achievement of better results in terms of production and management.

Through these courses, HIPRA’s aim is to emphasise its commitment to the development of the small ruminants sector and the importance of training amongst professionals in order to achieve these improvements.