Dairy grazing milk quality (2013)

Abstract

When dairy farmers think about milk quality, they think of mastitis. Mastitis, inflammation of the udder, is usually caused by a bacterial intramammary infection (IMI). This inflammation be subclinical or clinical. Subclinical mastitis has no obvious clinical signs and is usually revealed by an increased milk somatic cell count (SCC). Clinical mastitis can include any combination of the following signs: changes in milk secretions, such as clots, flakes, color, consistency; and swelling, heat, pain and redness, or erythema, of the affected mammary gland. Mastitis is the most common and costly of diseases in dairy production.