Udder Health

This is the fifth in Afrivet’s series of primary animal health care (PAHC) booklets, developed to help the veterinarian, livestock owner and livestock handler to understand the methodology used when implementing PAHC at farm level.
These booklets are ideally suited as practical training aids for training livestock handlers in early disease identification and treatment and better understanding the diseases that need to be prevented and how best to prevent them.
The prevention of teat and udder damage in replacement heifers by multi-host ticks is an essential part of primary animal health care that must be followed on every farm where these parasites occur. Multi-host ticks cause damage to the udder and teats of heifers and cows and the testes and sheaths of bulls. On some farms, this is the most important cause of long-term reproductive and production losses, which can’t be treated once the damage is done, but can be prevented effectively.
Prevention of teat and udder damage is one of the best examples of what can be achieved by implementing a PAHC approach, of which the livestock handler is the cornerstone. The livestock handler needs to undertake weekly inspection of the udders of replacement heifers and treat them as needed to prevent the teat damage caused by multi-host ticks.