The objective of the project is the implementation of on-farm-measures to reduce the usage of antibiotics in mastitis control drastically. A project team of 5 veterinarians and 2 agronomists will collect data of mastitis causing factors on 100 new farms per year in Switzerland: housing, feeding, human-cow-interaction, milking technology, milking hygiene. These data will be connected to the mastitis status of the herd based on quarter milk samples and milk recording dates. During a period of at least 2, years these farms will be intensively advised by the project team and the practical veterinarian. Therapies will primarily based on homeopathic remedies. The development of mastitis causing factors and the mastitis status of the farms is followed up at regular intervals to show possible correlations between (changing) factors and mastitis status. In addition, an Internet based network of health data should be implemented for providing informations for farmers and veterinarians in herd health management.
Observational longitudinal study; extension project
