On-the-spot mastitis cell counts
Mastitis treatment and drying off decisions aided by a two-minute, individual cow, somatic cell count reading from a hand-held device are now possible.
The Dairy Health Check reader was developed in Canada and validated independently by University of Guelph, Ontario. It is available from dairycentre.net in St Austell, Cornwall.
A self-contained pipette-slide is used to load the reader with a milk sample. Less than two minutes later, the somatic cell count is displayed.
Based on the different ways that white blood cells cluster, the device also indicates whether Staph aureus or Strep uberis is the main pathogen. For definitive diagnoses, Ian Parnell from Dairycentre says farmers should consult their vet practice.
"When drying off, the device enable farmers to identify cows eligible for selective dry cow therapy based on that very day's somatic cell counts in conjunction with recent months' results," he says. "During lactation, it can aid early diagnosis of mastitis infections in cows that are off colour but before clinical mastitis clots are present in the milk."
A ketosis module also using milk samples is under development and expected to be available during 2018. The equipment cost is £1,695 + VAT including 72 pipette-slides, then £105 + VAT for additional batches of 72. The pipette-slides are single use.
