Udder Health Maintenance to Augment Milk Production in Dairy Cattle: A Review

The burning problems of udder health /subclinical mastitis (SCM) in dairy cattle is considered as a worldwide silent threat which is major reasons for low yield and poor quality milk and causes substantial economic loss. The present work was conducted at ICAR- NDRI, ERS, Kalyani (WB) through a project (2017-2020). The article’s aim is to review important advances in udder health maintenance to ameliorate SCM for higher quantity and quality milk production. Many researchers worked to identify effective practices to control SCM caused by Streptococcus agalactiae and Staphylococcus aureus. Worldwide different researchers aimed to achieve better udder health and focused to detect SCM, mechanisms associated with infection, differentiating between clinical and subclinical stages, invent suitable diagnostic tests, understand exposure time, recognize specific characteristics of pathogen and establishing scientific milking procedures, etc. Establishment of standard operative programs, as discussed in this paper, resulted in better udder health maintenance. In changing climatic scenario and varying farm management practices globally researchers worked to redefine procedures to control SCM caused by different biotic and abiotic agents. Although, researchers achieved significant advances in SCM management, however changing herd structure and increased milk demand indicates that SCM /udder health will be one of the major issues to be dealt by scientists, entrepreneurs, dairy workers.