Date & Time: Thursday, June 17 from 1-4:30 PM CST
Program Title: Mastitis Treatment Best Practices
Program Description: During this interactive webinar you will develop skills that assist you in helping your clients make better decisions, use less antibiotics, save money, and promote a positive image of the dairy industry. A key component of making better decisions is having the right information – ideally a pathogen diagnosis for every case, and high quality, accessible cow records. You will discuss how to obtain information, interrupt what it means, and how to do the best you can with what you’ve got. Topics will include treatment protocol design, antibiotic selection for pathogen-based and blanket treatment, treatment duration, treatment failure and alternative management strategies for cows that don’t get antibiotics. You will also touch on selective dry cow therapy as the next frontier in antibiotic stewardship.
Attendees will select one of the following working groups and submit a draft protocol to work through with the group:
- Pathogen-based treatment of mild/moderate clinical mastitis
- Blanket treatment of mild/moderate clinical mastitis
- Selective dry cow therapy
In addition, each group will work through a series of case scenarios, thinking about how their protocols would be applied or adapted to fit the scenario. Working groups will submit a list of key take-aways or important considerations on protocol design, to be shared later with the entire group.
Pre-webinar work
Listen to Episode 59 and Episode 60-Clinical Mastitis Treatment with Pam Ruegg from The Moos Room
Pam Ruegg, DVM, MPVM joined The Moos Room to discuss treatment of non-severe clinical mastitis, best practices for producers, how to apply her research in the field and her mastitis celebrity status. Part 1-Aired on April 5, 2021 and Part 2-Aired on April 12, 2021.
1:00-1:05 pm-Welcome and Introductions
1:05-1:50 pm-Mastitis Treatment Best Practices
Review key messages regarding mastitis treatment best practices from podcast, and delve into some of the more complicated issues in greater depth including treatment protocol eligibility, the role of case-specific pathogen diagnosis or farm-specific pathogen distribution and dealing with treatment failure
Jim Bennett, DVM
Dr. Bennett earned his Bachelor of Arts in Natural Science from St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, his Bachelor of Science and Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Minnesota. For over 20 years he has been a consultant for Northern Valley Dairy Production Medicine Center in Plainview, MN and has been a partner for 40 years at Northern Valley Animal Clinic in Rochester, MN.
1:50-2:05 pm-Selective Dry Cow Therapy
Selective Dry Cow Therapy is the next frontier in antimicrobial stewardship, with significant potential to reduce antibiotic usage on dairy farms. In this session you will review the key findings from recent research and discuss the requirements for a successful selective dry cow therapy program.
Erin Royster, DVM, MS
Dr. Royster graduated from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2011. She completed a Master of Science in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, with an emphasis in milk quality and udder health. Dr. Royster is currently an Assistant Professor in Dairy Production Medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Her areas of interest for research, teaching and outreach include milking equipment evaluation, milking parlor performance, on-farm mastitis diagnostics, and mastitis control. In addition, Dr. Royster is the faculty advisor for the University of Minnesota Laboratory for Udder Health.
2:05-2:15-Break
2:15-3:00 pm-In-depth Work Groups
In small groups, participants will workshop their own treatment protocols and practice applying or adapting the protocols to different scenarios. Participants will learn from one another about different approaches, successes, and failures, and develop key take-aways to share with larger group.
3:00-3:10 pm-Break
3:10-3:40 pm-Using DC305 to Make Better Decisions
Having the right information at the right time is critical to making the right decisions about mastitis therapy. Highlighted will be some of the tools and techniques that DairyComp users can employ to record and track useful data, and automate some decision making to reduce human error.
Craig Walter, BS
Craig has over 23 years of experience as the Senior Support Specialist with Valley Agricultural Software. He is responsible for selling, supporting, and educating dairy producers, industry representatives, faculty/instructors, and students on the abilities of a variety of diary heard management software and related equipment.
3:40-4:30 pm-Implementation Panel
Dr. Bennett will discuss how he has been able to implement mastitis treatment best practices, including pathogen-based therapy and monitoring treatment outcomes, with his dairy clients, such as Dr. Dana Allen-Tully of Garlin Dairy. Both Drs. Bennett and Allen-Tully will take questions from participants.
Jim Bennett, DVM
Dr. James Bennett is a Dairy Production Medicine Consultant and has worked at Northern Valley Animal Clinic since 1981. His emphasis is on production medicine out of the Plainview, MN practice which operates under the name Northern Valley Dairy Production Medicine Center. Dr. Bennett has been a columnist for The Dairy Star since 2010, in 2018-2019 he served as a consultant to Merck Animal Health China and he also consults for DairyWorks providing management information through seminars and on farm visits internationally. Dr. Bennett earned his BA in Natural Science at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN and his BS and DVM from the University of Minnesota.
Dana Allen-Tully, PhD
Dr. Allen-Tully is an Owner at Gar-Lin Dairy Farms in Eyota, MN where she has served as the Dairy Operations Manager for over 18 years. She was a member of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Livestock Advisory Task Force from 2003-2005. She earned her BS in Agricultural Business Management from the University of Minnesota, her MS in Animal Science with an emphasis in ruminant nutrition/dairy at the University of Nebraska, and her PhD in Animal Science from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Allen-Tully also was Humphrey Institute Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota from 2004-2005.
Session Coordinator:
Erin Royster, DVM, MS, Assistant Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota