Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica Research A study of bovine mastitis, milking procedures and management practices on 25 Estonian dairy herds Laura Haltia*1,2, Tuula Honkanen-Buzalski3, Irina Spiridonova4, Arvi Olkonen5 and Vesa Myllys3 BioMed Central Open Access Address: 1Department of Animal Diseases and Food Safety, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Seinäjoki, Finland, 2Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 3Department of Animal Diseases and Food Safety, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Helsinki, Finland, 4Estonian National Veterinary Laboratory, Tartu, Estonia and 5Institute of Animal Husbandry of the Estonian Agricultural University, Tartu, Estonia Email: Laura Haltia* - laura.haltia@evira.fi; Tuula Honkanen-Buzalski - tuula.honkanen-buzalski@evira.fi; Arvi Olkonen - laura.haltia@evira.fi; Vesa Myllys - vesa.myllys@evira.fi * Corresponding author Published: 22 November 2006 Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2006, 48:22 doi:10.1186/1751-0147-48-22 This article is available from: http://www.actavetscand.com/content/48/1/22 Received: 07 November 2006 Accepted: 22 November 2006 © 2006 Haltia et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: Mastitis prevalence, milking procedures and management practices were investigated in 25 big dairy herds supplying milk to an Estonian dairy company. The aim of the study was to provide information for the company to be used in their new udder health improvement program to be set up after the completion of this study. Methods: Quarter milk samples were collected from 3,166 cows for bacterial analysis and SCC (somatic cell counting). During the farm visit the veterinarian filled in a questionnaire about milking procedures and management practices with the help of farm managers. If the milk SCC of a cow or of a quarter exceeded 200,000/ml, the cow was defined as having mastitis. Results: The percentage of cows having inflammation in one or more quarters measured by SCC (200,000/ml) was 52.7%. Corynebacterium bovis, Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative staphylococci were the most common bacterial isolates. Women as farm owners, and participating in the milking, were associated with lower mastitis prevalence on the farm. Peat bedding was associated with higher mastitis prevalence. Conclusion: We demonstrated relatively high mastitis prevalence in this study. Contagious bacteria (eg. S. aureus, C. bovis, S. agalactiae and coagulase negative staphylococci) caused most of the infections. These infections are usually spread from cow to cow at milking if the milking hygiene is not good enough. The mastitis situation could be improved by improving milking procedures and hygiene. Background Milk production is the most important branch of Estonian agriculture. Estonian milk industry faced major changes after the country gained independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Farming systems based on sovchoses and kolchoses have disappeared and they have been replaced by family holdings and big farms owned by companies. The abolition of sovchoses and kol- Page 1 of 6 (page number not for citation purposes)