Using Teatseal alone at Last Dry Off

The following data comes from a 1400 cow herd that last season, based on cell count, treated cows with a SCC >150 with Cepravin and the cows with a SCC <150 with Teatseal.

When assessing the effectiveness of a DCT strategy it is the first 1-2 months of lactation that provide the best answers.  The cows that received Teatseal had less than a 5% incidence of mastitis in the first month of lactation.  This is less than our clinic target of 6% and it was also lower than the Cepravin treated cows.  You will also note that the higher SCC cows (Cepravin treated) had a higher incidence for the remainder of the lactation.  High SCC cows from one season tend to be at greater risk of reinfection throughout the next season.  Culling chronically infected cows will mitigate some of this problem.