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. 2018 May 14;5:100. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00100

Table 1.

Variables used to estimate costs for mastitis-related expenditures, culling, and discarded milk.

Component Required variables
General information Number of milking cows
Milk yield reduction Mean BMSCC, number of milking cows, costs of production of 1 kg of milk*, Number of CM cases, cow mean daily milk production
Drug Number of CM cases, proportion of CM cases that were severe†, proportion of moderate and mild CM cases that received treatments, type of drugs used, frequency of administration and duration of treatment, price per drug unit‡
Discarded milk Number of CM cases, proportion of CM cases that received treatment, average duration of treatment, withdrawal time of used drugs§, duration of discarding milk in CM cases that are not treated, number of cow-days of discarding milk to manage BMSCC, mean cow daily milk production, costs of production of 1 kg of milk*, proportion of discarded milk fed to calves, price milk replacer
Veterinary services Number of CM cases, proportion of CM cases visited by a veterinarian, average cost for a veterinary visit, expenses on professional advices regarding herd mastitis issues
Labor Number of CM cases, average time spent working on a CM case, average hourly wage**
Product quality Cost of insurance, amount paid in penalties, premium loss
Diagnostic Number of samples collected in a year for CM and SCM apart from regular DHI tests, costs per sample
Culling and mortality Number of first lactation and older cows which were culled or died due to CM or SCM, costs for rearing or buying a first lactation cow, difference in milk production between primiparous and multiparous††, money received for meat or milk when selling a cow, money spent on carcass disposal for dead cows
Materials and investments (Material and labor for implementing preventive measures) Expenses for pre- and post-milking teat disinfection, gloves used for milking, dry cow therapy, and mastitis vaccination, required labor time for implementing pre- and post-milking teat disinfection and dry cow therapy‡‡

All values were reported for last 12 months (i.e., year 2015). Unless specified otherwise, source of information for variables was the producers’ questionnaire sent to the 374 Canadian National Dairy Study participants.

†Source: Canadian Bovine Mastitis Research Network National Cohort of Dairy Farm study (24)

‡Source: suggested retail price of the largest Canadian veterinary drug distributor (CDMV) St-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada, https://www.cdmv.com/en/veterinary-boutique.sn

§Source: drug labels

Source: mean retail price of the 5 most popular brands

††Friggens et al., (1999) (23).

‡‡van Soest et al., (2016) (22).