New research from Lincoln University could dramatically improve the treatment of a common cattle disease that costs farmers an estimated $280m a year.
A new computer model can now pick up early warning signs of mastitis in cattle herds. Photo: RNZ / Russell Palmer
Mastitis is a painful bacterial infection that affects cows' udders and causes a drop in milk quality and production.
The disease is treatable but can prove costly for dairy farmers.
But a team of researchers from Lincoln University may have found a way to detect the disease in its early stages.
Using data from a commercial robotic dairy farm, they built a computer model that detected early warning signs of mastitis in dairy cattle herds.
Study co-author Professor Sandhya Samarasinghe said using the model, treating infected cows could being much earlier - in as little as 10 days.
"As the disease progresses, the blood goes into the milk and therefore what we call electrical conductivity, the ability of the milk to pass electricity, that's a kind of indicator that blood has gone into the milk," she said.
"So, we used the electrical conductivity of the milk as an indicator of progression of the disease.
"Also, we can see that when the disease progresses, milk yield goes down.
"We can see from the normal milk level, when it starts to drop, so we can see that there's something going on there.
"These are the two main indicators of the early development of mastitis."
Professor Samarasinghe said the robot milkers used in the study also recorded milking time and quality - when a cow has mastitis, milking is painful and the cow will try to avoid or spend less time being milked, and the milk they produce is thicker than usual.
The devices were able to pick up these early signs that cows might be sick, she said.
And earlier detection means earlier treatment of the disease.
"We have to consider animal welfare seriously.
"The world is now more and more concerned about what we produce and the cost to animals and the nature, in our plants and so on.
"That's an important point of mastitis treatment, we are reducing the pain in cows due to this disease and therefore doing this research and using these products and models about mastitis, we can say that our products reflect our concern for animal welfare."