Comparison of Immediate Blanket Treatment versus a Delayed Pathogen-Based Treatment Protocol for Clinical Mastitis Using an On-Farm Culture Test at a Commercial German Dairy Farm

The objective of this study was to compare immediate intramammary antimicrobial treatment of mild and moderate cases of clinical mastitis (CM) with a selective treatment protocol based on on-farm culture results using Accumast(®). The study was conducted at a 2600 cow commercial farm in Northeast Germany. Using a randomized design, mild and moderate clinical mastitis cases were assigned to either the blanket therapy (BT) or pathogen-based therapy (SELECT) group. Overall, 468 cases were used for final analyses (BT = 236; SELECT = 232). The percentage of cases assigned to the blanket and pathogen-based groups that received intramammary therapy were 100 and 69.9%, respectively. Implementation of a pathogen-based treatment protocol for mild and moderate CM cases resulted in no significant difference in post-event milk production, somatic cell count, survival to 30 d, and days spent in the hospital compared with a blanket therapy protocol. Cows in the SELECT group had reduced odds of being culled within 60 d post CM (odds ratio = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.31–0.93; p = 0.027). The use of a pathogen-based treatment protocol using an on-farm culture system has the potential to efficiently reduce antimicrobial use without negative effects on health.