Bio-economic modeling of bovine intramammary infections

Abstract

The research of this thesis was directed to support decision making in relation to mastitis control with special focus on the dry period. First, a guideline to cost factors associated with mastitis was set, and a comprehensive literature review was conducted to evaluate literature estimates of the cost and cost-benefits of mastitis control. In another project, a data analysis was conducted to estimate production loss due to new subclinical mastitis in Dutch dairy herds. The estimates were used as input values to assist in developing a dynamic and stochastic bio-economic model of intramammary infection. The model simulated the major pathogens in the Netherlands using recent knowledge on the dynamics of pathogen-specific intramammary infection to calculate the cost of these infections. Two systematic meta-analysis reviews were conducted; the first quantified the preventive effect of dry period interventions against new intramammary infections. The second meta-analysis quantified the cure rate of existing intramammary infections at dry off using dry cow therapy. Subsequently, the bio-economic model was updated to include the dynamics of pathogen-specific intramammary infections in the dry period. Thereafter, an economic evaluation of applied dry period interventions was carried out based on the meta-analyses studies.