Supervisor: Dr. G. Keefe
Thesis Title: Evaluation of selective dry cow treatment following on-farm culture using Petrifilms® on low somatic cell count cows at dry off.
Description of project:
The objective of our project is to assess the utility of an on-farm culture tool for helping producers make teat sealant-based selective dry cow therapy (SDCT) decisions. We will compare infection rates at freshening between control group cows treated with a dry cow antibiotic (DCT) and an internal teat sealer (ITS), and cows treated based on on-farm culture results with a DCT and an ITS or an ITS alone. It is our hypothesis that on-farm culture will allow producers to be more selective in their approach to dry cow therapy, without increasing new infection rate in the dry period, and without affecting the long-term health and future milk production of the cow.
