Worldwide 3 main diseases threaten dairy farms: fertility is an ongoing issue, lameness becomes of more and more concern, and mastitis is still relevant. Despite a good knowledge of the pathology, the cost of both clinical and subclinical mastitis is often ignored or underestimated. 

If direct consequences (udder damages) and direct costs (cost of treatment, veterinarian fees and time spent to treat animals) of mastitis are obvious, undirect consequences  and costs are often neglected despite much more economical impact. The main undirect cost is the decrease of milk production for the current lactation and also, because of irreversible damages, for the next lactation. Optimizing milk production and milk quality is a priority for dairy sector. Optimizing milk production means optimizing farmers’ profit. And the strongest leverage measure to achieve  optimum milk production is to prevent mastitis. Think hygiene, think high gain! 

                                                                                                             

CID LINES has developed a tool, the mastitis cost calculator, to determine precisely and specifically the cost of mastitis on farm level. Enter the number of clinical cases per month, the level of somatic cell count, the production level, the price of the milk and you’ll obtain the cost of mastitis for your herd.