HEAL ▶▶▶TH
New ‘cure’ to tackle mastitis
With such a great emphasis on reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock farming these days a number of new ‘cures’ for mastitis have been developed.
BY CHRIS MCCULLOUGH M
astitis costs the global dairy industry billions of dollars every year in lost production and is one of the biggest consumers of antibiotics, or at least it was. There are many solutions to reduce
mastitis coming to the market that don’t use antibiotics and instead use natural remedies or new technology to control the disease.
Latest development One of these latest developments concentrates on the use of acoustic pulse technology and its ability to treat inflammatory diseases in human healthcare. Based in Israel, Armenta has adapted this human care tech- nology to increase the health of cattle by focusing on mastitis, which is also an inflammatory disease. Following a number of trials on dairy farms around the world, the company found its new test had a success rate for tackling mastitis of over 70%. Armenta CEO and chairman Gil Hakim helped set up the
company back in 2018 and is moving forward with the new treatment to help farmers. Hakim said: “The company was set up to address the most pressing disease affecting dairy farm- ing today as losses due to bovine mastitis can reach several billion dollars per year around the world. Armenta developed a disruptive, proprietary, antibiotic free solution for bovine mastitis, based on Acoustic Pulse Technology (APT) designed specifically for dairy cattle. APT has been used for over 20 years in human healthcare treating inflammatory diseases. Our motto is from human care to cattle care,” he said.
Acoustic Pulse Therapy for cows Armenta says that traditional, antimicrobial treatments for bovine mastitis are becoming more and more burdensome and that their results are unsatisfactory, they undermine farm profitability, and the human health risks are triggering global restrictions. Armenta is changing the paradigm with Acoustic Pulse Therapy (APT). Widely used in the medical field for more than 20 years, non-invasive acoustic therapy triggers natural biological processes that fight infection and inflammation. Now, for the first time, this technology can be used to treat dairy cows quickly, easily, and cost-effectively. A unique, sim- ple-to-use, lightweight and hand-held device, the APT-X, pro- vides comprehensive mastitis treatment in just three minutes, with immediate results. During the course of field studies on dairy farms around the world, farmers and veterinarians applied the appropriate Ar- menta course of therapy to hundreds of cows with clinical or subclinical mastitis. The equipment was comfortable to use and performed well, the treatments were simple to adminis- ter, and the animals displayed no resistance.
Armenta CEO and chairman Gil Hakim helped set up the company in 2018.
22 ▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 7, No. 1, 2020
Milk yield and cure rate The company says the real impact was on the cattle’s health and milk production which after treatment showed a mastitis recovery rate of over 70% with normal SCC levels and infec- tion-free. Also, there was around 10% more milk produced daily using the APT-X than without treatment. These improve- ments in productivity and animal welfare meant an 80% re- duction in culling rates, and a measurable and rapid improve- ment in farm profitability. Hakim added, “We have already tested the technology on over 850 cows in over 40 farms in France, the Netherlands,
PHOTO: CHRIS MCCULLOUGH
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