New Treatment Option for Clinical and Subclinical Mastitis in Dairy Cows Using Acoustic Pulse Technology (APT)

Abstract

The effect of acoustic pulse technology (APT) on recovery, culling, milk yield, and economic benefits for 118 cows with subclinical mastitis was compared with a no-treatment control (59 vs. 59), and another 118 APT-treated cows with clinical mastitis were compared with antibiotic-treated controls (59 vs. 59). Recovery was defined as a decrease in somatic cell count (SCC) to <250 × 103 cells/mL in at least two out of three monthly milk recordings after treatments. For the subclinically infected cows, APT treatment resulted in 65.5% recovery, 0% culling, and additional milk yield of 2.74 L/cow per day compared to 35.6% recovery and 5.1% culling in the no-treatment controls. For the clinically infected cows, APT treatment resulted in 67.8% recovery, 6.8% culling, and additional milk yield of 3.9 L/cow per day compared to 35.6% recovery and 32.2% culling in the antibiotic-treated group. Bacteriological analysis was run for 95 (80%) cows with clinical mastitis (APT-46; AB-49). For cows with Escherichia coli infection, 85.7% (18/21) treated with APT recovered vs. 17.6% (3/17) in the antibiotic-treated group; for cows with streptococcal infection, 66.0% (12/18) in the APT-treated group recovered vs. 44.4% (8/18) in the antibiotic-treated group.