Managing Rising BSCC in Late Lactation

As milk yields fall, SCC will rise in cows with sub-clinical mastitis due to a concentration effect. Any rise in the BMSCC will be increased if the rate of new sub-clinical infections is not being controlled.

Suggestions

• Ensure machines and rubber-ware are maintained to prevent teat end injury.
• Continue to teat spray at effective concentrations to minimize the passive transfer of new sub-clinical infections - often caused by common skin bacteria, to un-infected cows - i.e keep the clean cows clean
• The convention of adopting a lower concentration of teat spray solutions in so-called “low risk” periods may need to be re-evaluated. The emphasis must be on avoiding new sub-clinical infections at all times of the year. Some of the “low risk” solutions may be too low to achieve this.
• Monitor new infection rates using the front sheet of the herd test SCC report. Especially keep an eye on the number of cows in the 250-500,000 range
• Strategically dry off high cell count cows early (with treatment and sealant) 
• If herd size allows consider splitting the herd and dropping the young herd/animals to OAD first followed by a period to - allow the cell count to settle and then if it remains low continue to drop the remaining herd/older cows to OAD