HEAL ▶▶▶TH
Russia’s strategy to tackle mastitis and antibiotics
Russia is looking for new ways to deal with mastitis as the country is increasingly looking to curb veterinarians’ use of antibiotics. It is also looking into designing novel types of bacteriophages.
BY VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV I
Backyard farms frequently encounter mastitis.
t is commonly believed that clinical and subclinical masti- tis in Russia is causing more problems than in the Europe- an Union (EU), affecting more cows and causing bigger losses. According to Ian Humphery-Smith, the head of
private sector investment in Skolkovo RusInnovations, the two main problems of the Russian dairy herd are unusually high rates of clinical and subclinical mastitis and unusually low conception rates.
Alarmingly high levels of mastitis Without serious measures, the Russian dairy industry will con- tinue to suffer from alarmingly high levels of mastitis infection and most probably poor conception rates in most of the herd, Humphery-Smith warned in an article published in Russia.
“Some evidence exists to suggest that up to 20% of young heif- ers are already infected with mastitis-causing bacteria before actually entering the milking herd, but this alone is far from the principal cause of endemic mastitis infection. It is noteworthy that in many Russian milking herds, the bulk of first lactation animals are succumbing to clinical or subclinical infection with- in 12 months. The negative impact of this level of infection on profitability across the industry is horrendous,” he adds.
The mastitis issue is pressing for all types of farms, both
for industrial companies and small farmers
Mastitis remains a top enemy of Russian dairy farmers and frequently interferes in the production process, according to the Russian union of dairy producers Soyuzmoloko. “The mastitis issue is pressing for all types of farms, both for industrial companies and small farmers. Currently, there is no statistical data on mastitis presence in the Russian dairy herd population,” says Maria Zhebit, head of Soyuzmoloko public communication department. “The spread of mastitis impairs cow fertility and herd produc- tivity, negatively impacting the financial performance of farms and industry as a whole,” Zhebit adds. “Besides, with a systemic problem, expensive imported livestock at modern enterprises have to be culled [due to mastitis].”
Mastitis spurs demand for antibiotics With mastitis presenting widely in the Russian dairy herd, Russian farmers require more antibiotics to handle this prob- lem. This factor is likely to contribute to the problem of exces- sive use of in-feed antibiotics in the Russian livestock
30 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 1, 2021
PHOTO: VLADIMIR KUBANSKY
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