Table 1.
Characteristics of two Finnish dairy farms with high incidence of Serratia marcescens cases
| Character | Herd 1 | Herd 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Farm type | Tie stall, 5-year old barn | Tie stall, renovated 15 years ago |
| Herd size | 45 | 37 |
| Cow breed(s) | Ayrshire | Holstein–Friesian |
| Annual average milk yield (litre/cow) | 11,111 | 10,058 |
| Stalls | Rubber mattresses, no bedding | Saw dust bedding |
| Environment | Clean environment and good hygiene practices. Cows at pasture in summertime. Pasture clean and dry, but a muddy area around the feeding rack and water tank | Clean environment and good hygienic practices except that the stalls for the biggest cows were too short and thus dirty. Cows at pasture during summertime |
| Milking devices | Six milking units with automatic take offs | Six milking units with automatic take offs |
| Udder and teat cleaning before milking | Separate moist towels for each cow, machine washing and drying of towels between milkings | Separate moist towels for each cow, machine washing and drying of towels between milkings |
| CMT test | Routinely on all cows once a week and always if the cow has signs of mastitis | On all cows if bulk tank milk SCC elevated, and for cows with clinical signs of mastitis |
| Bacteriological testing of milk samples (PCR) | If CMT > 2 | If CMT > 2 |
| Post milking disinfection | Viri-Dip plusa, re-usable spray bottles that were filled daily from a storage canister and rinsed with tap water between the fillings. Storage canister had a pump that was moved to a new canister without cleaning | Viri-Dip plusa, re-usable spray bottles that were filled daily from a storage canister and rinsed with tap water between the fillings. Storage canister had a pump that was moved to a new canister without cleaning |
| Other practices | Selective dry cow therapy, approximately 50% of cows treated. Udder supporters were used for almost all cows | Selective dry cow therapy, only for few cows. Udder supporters lined with newspapers were used for cows with large udders. |
| Water quality | Well water met the legislative requirements | Well water met the legislative requirements |
| Most commonly used antimicrobial for treating mastitis | Procaine penicillin | Procaine penicillin |
a A product containing n,n-bis (3-aminopropyl) dodecylamine, lactic acid, allantoin, glycerol and sorbitol (Viri-Dip plus, Novadan ApS, Danmark)