Worldwide, mastitis is one of the most expensive diseases for dairy herds. Discussing with farmers, it appears that the real cost of this disease is strongly under-estimated.

Indeed, costs of mastitis are considered in two categories:

• “Direct or visible” costs are normally easy to quantify by farmers. It represents money they are directly losing: treatment costs, vet services costs, discarded milk.

• “Indirect or invisible” costs are rarely taken into account by farmers because it is money they are not directly earning: decrease of milk yield, labor time, increase of the culling incidence…

Visible costs only impact for around 15% of the total cost of clinical mastitis…

Moreover, clinical mastitis is only the tip of the iceberg: subclinical mastitis are much more frequent and more costly for the farmer.

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The decrease of milk yield due to clinical or subclinical mastitis is the main economical consequence for the farmer.

Once the disease is detected, the farmer has already lost a lot of money because of the milk production reduction. That’s why hygienic prevention is a key in mastitis management.

Use our free tool: Mastitis Cost Calculator to evaluate the losses on your farm.
Download the app on iOs or Android. Fill in with your data, and get a picture of the economics of mastitis on your farm!