Original article

Cumulative Risk of Bovine Mastitis Treatments in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

JP Valde¹, LG Lawson^2,3, A Lindberg⁴, JF Agger², H Saloniemi⁵ and O Østerås¹

¹  Department of Production Animal Clinics and Sciences, The Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Oslo, Norway

²  Department of Large Animal Sciences, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg, Denmark

³  Danish Research Institute of Food Economics, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg, Denmark

⁴  Swedish Dairy Association, Uppsala, Sweden, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Helsinki, Finland

⁵  Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Helsinki, Finland

corresponding author email

Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2004, 45:201-210doi:10.1186/1751-0147-45-201

Published:	31 December 2004

Abstract

Data from the national dairy cow recording systems during 1997 were used to calculate lactation-specific cumulative risk of mastitis treatments and cumulative risk of removal from the herds in Denmark, Finland Norway and Sweden. Sweden had the lowest risk of recorded mastitis treatments during 305 days of lactation and Norway had the highest risk. The incidence risk of recorded mastitis treatments during 305 days of lactation in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden was 0.177, 0.139, 0.215 and 0.127 for first parity cows and 0.228, 0.215, 0.358 and 0.204 for parities higher than three, respectively. The risk of a first parity cow being treated for mastitis was almost 3 times higher at calving in Norway than in Sweden. The period with the highest risk for mastitis treatments was from 2 days before calving until 14 days after calving and the highest risk for removal was from calving to 10 days after calving in all countries.

The study clearly demonstrated differences in bovine mastitis treatment patterns among the Nordic countries. The most important findings were the differences in treatment risks during different lactations within each country, as well as differences in strategies with respect to the time during lactation mastitis was treated.