All dairy processors depend on a continuous supply of high-quality bulk milk from milk producers to be able to distribute liquid milk and dairy products. Mastitis, inflammation of the bovine udder, is the most common disease in dairy cows, and leads to altered milk composition and impaired milk quality. The somatic cell count (SCC) is currently used as a marker for udder health, and indirectly,...

BACKGROUND Schmallenberg virus (SBV) is a recently emerged virus of ruminants in Europe. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are commonly used to detect SBV-specific antibodies in bulk tank milk samples to monitor herd exposure to infection. However, it has previously been shown that a bulk tank milk sample can test positive even though the majority of cows within the herd are seronegati...

There is little doubt that raw milk is the most scrutinized agricultural commodity. Appendix N of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance requires that all bulk tank milk be tested for beta-lactam antibiotics. This document also sets the regulatory levels for somatic cell counts (SCC) and bacteria levels in raw bulk tank milk. Milk processors are required to perform the regulatory testing. Many progress...

Two monoclonal antibody-mediated immunomagnetic separation PCR kits (AnDiaTec ParaTub-S IMS-PCR-ELISA and ParaTub-SL IMS-real time PCR) were developed and evaluated for the automated high-throughput detection of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis) in bulk milk of naturally infected dairy herds and made commercially available. M. paratuberculosis are first isolated ...

The objective of the studies reported in this research communication was to investigate differences in composition and enzymatic activities in bulk milk samples provided from Swedish dairy farms with different management systems, i.e. automated (AMS) and conventional milking systems (CMS). A bulk milk sample was collected from each of 104 dairy farms, 51 using AMS and 53 using CMS, located in t...

Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) is a highly infectious pathogen of cattle causing pneumonia, polyarthritis, otitis, and less frequently, subcutaneous abscesses, abortions and meningitis. Ineffective drugs treatments, culling of infected cows and loss of milk production can lead to significant economic loss on dairy farms. The early detection of cows excreting M. bovis bacteria to prevent mastitis o...

The objective of this work was to determine on-farm risk factors for psychrotrophic bacterial counts in bulk tank milk from dairy farms in Argentina. Raw milk samples from bulk tanks of 27 dairy farms were examined for total psychrotrophic counts (TPC), proteolytic psychrotrophic counts (PPC) and lipolytic psychrotrophic counts (LPC) (dependent or outcome variables). A survey recording infrastr...

The key to properly diagnosing cleaning and sanitation problems is identifying the types of bacteria present in bulk tank milk. Periodic culturing of bulk tank milk is also an essential tool to diagnose milk quality issues related to mastitis. These methods are described in greater detail in Reinemann et al. (2002) and Ruegg and Reinemann (2002). Collection of the type of bulk tank culture data...

Leptospirosis is the most widespread zoonosis throughout the world and human mortality from severe disease forms is high even when optimal treatment is provided. Leptospirosis is also one of the most common causes of reproductive losses in cattle worldwide and is associated with significant economic costs to the dairy farming industry. Herds are tested for exposure to the causal organism either...