Mastitis in dairy herds continues to be important and relevant to veterinary advisors for many reasons, including cow welfare, cost of disease and sustainability of farming and food supply, environmental impact, wastage and use of antimicrobials. When implementing control measures to reduce mastitis infection rates on farm, the importance of a herd level analysis of patterns to inform decision making has been shown to be a crucial step. Although the AHDB Dairy Mastitis Control Plan has performed well since its inception, feedback from participants and businesses indicate that the first stage of the Plan, analysing patterns and making a herd 'diagnosis' is often a difficult stage for Plan Deliverers. Analysis of data using software and understanding of mastitis epidemiology remain barriers to more widespread control of mastitis in the UK. This project aims to provide a fully automated method of assessing the predominant mastitis infection patterns present on farm, using somatic cell count and clinical mastitis records. Importantly, this automated tool will enable mastitis control Plan Deliverers and farmers to immediately highlight the most important areas on their unit for mastitis control and direct efforts accordingly.
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