The use of a cephalonium containing dry cow therapy and an internal teat sealant, both alone and in combination

• Published in: Journal of dairy science 2010-04, Vol.93 (4), p.1566-1577
• Main Authors: Bradley, A.J., Breen, J.E., Payne, B., Williams, P., Green, M.J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adverse effects; Animal productions; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - administration & dosage; Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use; Bacterial Infections - prevention & control; Bacterial Infections - veterinary; Biological and medical sciences; bovine mastitis; Cattle; cephalonium; cephalosporins; Cephalosporins - administration & dosage; Cephalosporins - therapeutic use; combination treatment; dairy cows; drug therapy; dry cow therapy; dry period; Female; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; herd health; internal teat sealant; intramammary infection; Lactation; Mammary Glands, Animal - microbiology; Mammary Glands, Animal - physiology; Mastitis, Bovine - prevention & control; Milk - cytology; Milk and cheese industries. Ice creams; Postpartum Period; Random Allocation; randomized clinical trials; somatic cell count; teat sealant; teats; Terrestrial animal productions; Vertebrates
• ISSN: 0022-0302; 1525-3198
• DOI: 10.3168/jds.2009-2725

The dry period is a critical time in the lactation cycle, being the optimum time to cure existing intramammary infection (IMI) as well as encompassing the periods of highest susceptibility to new infection. Currently, IMI in the dry period is controlled with antibiotic dry cow therapy. The aim of this randomized control trial was to investigate different dry cow therapy regimens by stratifying cows by likely infection status at drying off in herds with low somatic cell count (SCC; bulk milk SCC 90% in quarters receiving antibiotic. Combination treatment of high-SCC infected cows resulted in an increased likelihood of being pathogen free post-calving (odds ratio=1.40; 95% credibility interval=1.03–1.90). The benefits of combination treatment of low-SCC uninfected cows were less clear. With respect to clinical mastitis, combination treatment of high-SCC infected cows resulted in a decreased likelihood of developing clinical mastitis in the first 100 d of the subsequent lactation (odds ratio=0.68; 95% credibility interval=0.48–0.98). The retention of the internal sealant was adversely affected by its use in combination with antibiotic dry cow therapy.