Dairymen use these results knowing that contagious organisms have to be coming from the cow. They can then follow up with individual bacterial cultures to locate the cows that are shedding that type of organism. In most cases, the infected cows have been culled from the herd. Contagious infections are spread from cow to cow. By removing these cows from the herd, the incidence of new infections should be reduced.
New infections come from the cows being exposed to the environment.
From this information, dairymen have made changes to try and correct the problems. The plan is to continue with the project during the next year. Cooperative Extension System , College of Agriculture , University of Idaho . All rights reserved.