The Economic Evaluation of Mastitis Control Strategies in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Herds

Abstract

The economic evaluation of mastitis control is challenging. The objective of this studywas to perform the economic evaluation of mastitis control, under different intervention scenarios,quantifying the total cost of mastitis caused by S. aureus in Holstein cows in Argentina. A modelwas set for a dairy herd of Holstein cows endemically infected with S. aureus. A basic mastitiscontrol plan including proper milking procedures, milking machine test, dry cow therapy, andtreatment for clinical mastitis, was compared against other more complex and costly interventions,such as segregation and culling of chronically infected cows. Sensitivity analysis was performed bymodifying the intramammary infection transition probabilities, economic parameters, and efficacyof treatment strategies. The basic mastitis control plan showed a median total cost of USD88.6/cowper year, which was close to the infected cows culling scenarios outputs. However, the segregationscenario was the most efficient, in which the total cost was reduced by about 50%. Such cost wasmore sensitive to probabilities and efficacy than the economic parameters. The model is flexible andcan be customized by producers and veterinarians according to different control and herd settings.