Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Veterinary treatment strategies for clinical mastitis in dairy cows in Sweden.
- Journal:
- The Veterinary record
- Year:
- 2016
- Authors:
- Persson Waller, K et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of animal health and antimicrobial strategies
Plain-English summary
A study in Sweden looked at how well veterinarians are following guidelines for treating clinical mastitis, which is an infection in the udders of dairy cows. Out of 741 veterinarians contacted, 267 responded to a survey about their treatment practices. While most veterinarians recognized the importance of testing for bacteria, many made treatment choices without checking how effective the antibiotics would be against those bacteria. Additionally, few veterinarians measured the cows' weight before giving them injectable antibiotics. Overall, the veterinarians generally adhered to the guidelines, but there were areas where improvements could be made.
Abstract
To evaluate if Swedish veterinary guidelines on use of antimicrobials in cases of clinical mastitis in dairy cows have been adopted by veterinary practitioners, their treatment strategies were evaluated in a cross-sectional study using a web-based questionnaire. Another aim was to study if the strategies differed among veterinarians due to year and country of exam, sex, region, numbers of mastitis cases per month, and postgraduate training in herd health using multivariable logistic regression models. In total, 267 of 741 (36 per cent) veterinarians contacted answered the questionnaire satisfactorily. Most considered bacteriological diagnostics important, but many veterinarians made treatment decisions without collecting information on antimicrobial susceptibility. Moreover, few veterinarians used measuring tape to assess bodyweight before dosing parenteral antimicrobials. Year of exam and postgraduate training were the veterinary demographic factors associated with most treatment routines. The questions associated with most demographic factors were if antimicrobial treatment is affected by knowledge on earlier udder pathogens in the herd, and how often NSAID and follow-up of treatment using milk somatic cell count are used. Overall, the veterinarians followed the Swedish guidelines rather well, but discrepancies in need for improvement were found.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26864025/