New product may help farmers manage herd mastitis issues

No matter the season, mastitis is destructive for dairy farmers. For some dairies, the udder disease can become a year-round challenge. It's also an expensive one, costing the industry $1 billion annually, according to Penn State University Extension.

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The disease turns a cow's udder red, and her mammary glands become swollen, making milking painful. Inside the teat, mastitis damages a cow's secretory cells causing white blood and epithelial cells to attack the infection, which can end up in milk.

In 2015, research from the University of Georgia found that a case of clinical mastitis in the first 30 days of milking costs farmers $444 from diagnostics to dumping milk. On average, a farmer will spend $270 per cow to treat mastitis.

In addition to high antibiotic treatment costs and the loss of milk production, farmers are looking to cut back on antibiotic costs, especially as the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation for most over-the-counter livestock antibiotic medications will no longer be available for purchase without a veterinary prescription goes into effect on June 11.

• READ MORE: Farmacy: Rx you ready for the new FDA rule?

• A new Italian product, OZOLEA-MAST, could be a solution to help farmers reduce the occurrence of severe mastitis cases, reduce the need to dump milk by cows treated with antibiotics, or cull cows due to chronic mastitis.
• Dairy farmer Justin Fitch of West Winfield, New York, was scrolling through his Facebook feed when an OZOLEA-MAST advertisement caught his eye. Fitch, a young farmer with about 250 head of Holsteins and Brown Swiss, was intrigued by the product's claim of "no milk withholding time."
• OZOLEA-MAST, a non-antibiotic animal device, was cleared by the FDA in 2020.
• Fitch first used OZOLEA-MAST in the fall of 2021. He says mastitis is a common health concern in cows, and he is always looking for ways to improve his herd's overall health and milk quality.

Cutting down on somatic cell counts

Studies have found that 85% of mastitis cases are mild to moderate, and many milk cultures show that infection doesn't always justify the use of antibiotics, according to Mike Zurakowski, senior Extension associate with Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

"If you look at milk cultures, you may determine what is going on, but cultures are not perfect. So, it tells you what's there. Yet, it doesn't tell you what to do to reduce clinical mastitis or somatic counts," says Bradley Heins, a University of Minnesota Extension dairy management specialist.

Heins works with many organic grazing dairies who want to reduce antibiotics in their herds and gain better control of somatic cell counts in their cows.

"In my work with many organic dairy farms with clinical mastitis, there's not much to choose from," he adds.

Last year, Heins did a study on the effectiveness of OZOLEA-MAST on a University of Minnesota dairy herd. He was impressed with the results — reduced infections and lower somatic cell counts in cows with chronic mastitis.

• READ MORE: Preventing Mastitis in Cattle

A healthier milking herd

As a cow shows mastitis symptoms, such as redness or flakes in her milk, farmers insert one tube of OZOLEA-MAST in the affected quarter twice a day, following a four-day protocol of application.

The product uses food-grade vegetable oil to naturally create a physical film barrier on the inner wall of the teat canal that creates an uncomfortable environment for bacteria. This process allows the tissue to autonomously renew itself. When the mammary tissue is repaired, OZOLEA-MAST also helps it defend against future udder diseases.

Heins' study included cows that calved in the spring 2022. Heins and his team identified the infected quarters, and the cows were given OZOLEA-MAST for eight milkings. They also sampled the cows weekly.

"We lowered the somatic cell counts by 33% over the first 14 days after administration. So it's quite significant that we were able to reduce those somatic cell counts by more than 30%, because that means less milk that you'll dump if you have a high somatic cell count, and there are a lot of premiums that can come with that," Heins said.

One of the 18 cows in the study had a high somatic cell count — almost 6 million white blood cells in a milk sample and using OZOLEA-MAST within 14 days lowered white blood cell count to 2 million.

Heins and his team also found that some cows with extreme counts need follow-up treatment to lower their somatic cell counts.

"We saw some cows that may need more than 14 days to lower their count, especially if they're high. It can be hard. However, there is an indication that they are coming down," he says.

Heins' study also has proved that the product is delivering on its promises of reducing somatic cell counts in chronically infected cows without antibiotics, which has been a growing issue with organic dairies trying to reduce antibiotic use.

"I'm excited and hopeful for organic farms to use this product because antibiotics are not allowed on those farms," Heins says.

In New York, after using the product for two years later, Fitch says he has seen a significant decrease in mastitis cases on his farm needing antibiotics after using OZOLEA-MAST in the early stages of any udder infection.

Fitch believes about 60% of the time, his cows don't need to use a round of antibiotics. He has also noticed the product boosts his cows' immune systems to fight additional udder infections.

"I have seen great success when using it on cows at the first sign of any mastitis, which has resulted in two things — not having to treat with antibiotics or discarding any of my milk due to antibiotics," Fitch says.