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Mastitis Technotes

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Published August 2026
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Mastitis Technotes - technical guidance for dairy cattle health professionals

The Mastitis Technotes provide practical, evidence-based technical guidance to help vets, milk quality advisors and animal health professionals support dairy farmers to prevent, detect and manage mastitis. These cover the key stages of the season: calving, lactation, drying off, and review and planning. The Technotes bring together the knowledge needed to support effective mastitis control and improve milk quality.

Mastitis remains one of the most costly and preventable diseases in New Zealand dairy herds, with risk and control measures shifting across the seasons, from calving through lactation to drying off. Each chapter provides the technical knowledge needed to manage mastitis and milk quality at each stage.

Mastitis Technotes Chapters

Calving

1. Reducing exposure to environmental mastitis bacteria

2. Taking care with heifers

3. Managing withholding periods, residues and milk quality at calving

4. Detecting and managing clinical mastitis at calving

 

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Lactation

5. Using effective milking techniques and routines to prevent mastitis

6. Monitoring and maintaining milking machine function

7. Applying effective post-milking teat disinfection

8. Practising good hygiene during milking

9. Preventing and managing teat sores and cracks

10. Detecting and managing clinical mastitis in lactation

11. Monitoring bulk milk SCC

12. Using individual cow SCC for management decisions

13. Investigating a mastitis problem

 

Drying off

14. Deciding on dry cow management strategy

15. Culling persistently infected cows

16. Drying off abruptly, taking steps to reduce yield

17. Administering dry cow treatments as recommended

18. Checking udders regularly after dry off

 

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Review and plan

19. Taking care when selling cull cows and buying replacements

20. Reviewing and planning mastitis control

 

Looking for something else?

Explore the links below to find more mastitis content or visit the Rural Professional Hub to stay up to date with the latest information - from a quick overview to a deep dive into your chosen area.