Effect of the Postmilking Teat Dip “Bovadine” on the Incidence of Staphylococcus aureus and Mastitis1

Abstract

The University milking dairy herd was divided into two groups according to breed. Diagonally opposite teats of each cow were dipped with “Bovadine” after each milking. The remaining two teats served as controls. The Wisconsin Catalase Test, Wisconsin Mastitis Test, and Direct Microscopic Somatic Cell Count were used to detect incidence of mastitis in composite samples from dipped and control teats. Samples of milk were plated on Baird-Parker Agar to detect staphlococci. The postmilking teat dip caused a 31.4% reduction in new cases of mastitis and 42.3% reduction in staphylococcal infections during the 19 months of the study. The teat dip caused a reduction in new cases of staphylococcal infections and in number of quarters infected with mastitis; however, these reductions were non-significant. The WMT had the highest correlation when compared with all the other tests used to detect mastitis. Results indicated that the WMT would be the best single test to use to detect cows with mastitis.