Endemic BJD resulted in modest but persistent losses in typical infected dairy herds. Control of disease using test-and-cull, vaccination or combined test-and-cull with vaccination was cost-effective.

Treatment during lactation of cows with high somatic cell counts in milk is ineffective in reducing bacterial infections and in reducing somatic cell counts to acceptable numbers.

There was no significant difference between treatments on quarter cure rates for new infections, for chronic infections and for infections with Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus uberis. Infected quarters treated with cephalonium had a significantly higher cure rate than quarters treated with cloxacillin when Corynebacterium bovis and Staphylococcus epidermids were included as pathogens combined (80.3% versus 70.7%). There was no significant difference between the treatments on somatic cell counts of infected cows at the first two herd tests after calving. There was no difference between treatments on the incidence of clinical mastitis in the first 7 days after calving.

No abstract