Investigation of the relationship between bacteria counts and bedding characteristics with udder health and milk quality on U.S. dairy farms: preliminary results

摘要

The major objective of this multi-herd observational study was to describe the relationship between BBC and udder health and to identify cutpoints for interpreting bedding culture results. A secondary objective was to identify bedding characteristicsand bedding management strategies that are associated with lower BBC and improved udder health. This abstract presents preliminary results describing some of the relationships between bedding bacteria count (BBC}, bedding characteristics, and udder health for 4 bedding materials: new sand (NS), reclaimed sand (RS), manure solids (MS), or other organic bedding materials (OB).