Associations of selected bedding types with incidence rates of subclinical and clinical mastitis in primiparous Holstein dairy cows

The objective of this observational study was to determine the association of exposure to selected bedding types with incidence of subclinical (SM) and clinical mastitis (CM) in primiparous Holstein dairy cows housed in identical pens at a single facility. At parturition, primiparous cows were randomly assigned to pens containing freestalls with 1 of 4 bedding materials: (1) deep-bedded new sand (NES, n = 27 cows), (2) deep-bedded recycled sand (RS, n = 25 cows), (3) deep-bedded manure solids (DBMS, n = 31 cows), and (4) shallow-bedded manure solids over foam-core mattresses (SBMS, n = 26 cows). For 12 mo, somatic cell counts of quarter milk samples were determined every 28 d and duplicate quarter milk samples were collected for microbiological analysis from all quarters with SM (defined as somatic cell count >200,000 cells/mL). During this period, duplicate quarter milk samples were also collected for microbial analysis from all cases of CM. For an additional 16 mo, cases of CM were recorded; however, no samples were collected. Quarter days at risk (62,980) were distributed among bedding types and most quarters were enrolled for >150 d. Of 135 cases of SM, 63% resulted in nonsignificant growth and 87% of recovered pathogens (n = 33) were identified as coagulase-negative staphylococci. The distribution of etiologies of pathogens recovered from cases of SM was associated with bedding type. Coagulase-negative staphylococci were recovered from 12, 38, 11, and 46% of quarters with SM from cows in pens containing NES, RS, DBMS, and SBMS, respectively. A result of nonsignificant growth was obtained for 81, 59, 89, and 46% of quarters with SM from cows in pens containing NES, RS, DBMS, and SBMS, respectively. Quarters of primiparous cows bedded with NES tended to have greater survival time to incidence of CM than quarters of primiparous cows bedded with RS or DBMS.