Some mastitis infections simply cannot be cured - it may be that the bacteria causing the mastitis are very difficult or impossible to treat, or it may be that an otherwise treatable infection has caused so much inflammation and damage to the udder that it is now incurable.

This may be expressed as an inability to cure a clinical case of mastitis, or as a continually re-ocurring clinical case of mastitis, or it may be a cow with a persistently high cell count.

The risk to the farm is that every infected cow that remains in the herd is a possible source of infection for other cows in the herd.

Whilst culling is only one of the options to reduce the risk of these cows spreading infection, the more infected cows that remain in the herd, the higher the risk of spread - it is that simple!

Every infected cow that remains in the herd is a possible source of infection for other cows.

The more infected cows that remain in the herd, the higher the risk of spread - it is that simple!

Dairy Focus uses a range of measures to assess the risk in each herd, including the Countdown Mastitis Focus report whenever it is available.

Culling is one of the options to reduce that risk.

The Dairy Focus Mastitis Control System provides regular assessments and periodic lists of cows to consider for culling.