The prevalence of mastitis in primiparous heifers in eleven Waikato dairy herds

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of mastitis among primiparous heifers at calving and at drying off in 11 Waikato dairy herds during the 1993-94 dairy production season. Duplicate quarter milk samples were collected aseptically from 458 heifers within 5 days after calving for bacteriological analysis. Mastitis was diagnosed in at least one quarter in 35.6% of these heifers. Coagulase-negative staphylococci were isolated from 21.8% of the heifers. The prevalence of coagulase-negative staphylococci varied between herds from 4.3% to 44.8%. Environmental streptococci caused mastitis in 12.2% of heifers, ranging from 5.6% to 24.1% between herds. Streptococcus uberus was the pathogen identified most frequently at calving and accounted for more than 90% of the streptococcal isolates. Staphylococcus aureus and coliforms were isolated from less than 1% of samples. Clinical mastitis was observed in 8.1% of heifers at calving; environmental streptococci were isolated from 67.6% of these clinical clinical cases. Only 2.8% of heifers developed clinical mastitis during lactation and environmental streptococci were isolated from 38.5% of these cases. The prevalence of mastitis among 428 of the heifers at drying off was 64.7%; a 1.8 fold increase during lactation. Corynebactetium bovis was isolated from 43% of heifers at drying off even though it was not isolated from any heifers at calving. During the season, the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis increased to 2.8% while mastitis caused by environmental streptococci declined to 2.8%. The prevalence of environmental mastitis pathogens decreased during lactation while contagious pathogens increased in each of the 11 herds. Ineffective post-milking teat sanitation probably contributed to the increase in mastitis caused by contagious pathogens. Specific factors were not determined that affected the variation in prevalence between herds.