Ambic In Line Mastitis Detector is an aid to mastitis detection. 

Timely and accurate mastitis detection is vital to ensure that clinical cases are treated effectively.

Clinical mastitis is defined as an inflammation of the udder where there are changes to the milk. These changes are seen and identified as, clots, abnormal colour or any other changes to the appearance of milk. These changes will be present in all the milk that the particular cow produces.

Occasionally clots are seen in the first two or three squirts of milk from the cow. If the milk then returns to being clear, this is an indication that it is clinical mastitis but a local reaction in the teat itself.

You do need to carry out tests such as the California Mastitis Test to decide if a cow has clinical mastitis. If the milk appears normal, then the cow does have clinical mastitis.

Early identification and treatment of mastitis is essential as it will result in:

• A more immediate response to therapy
• Reduces the potential of cross-infection, preventing additional cows from contracting mastitis
• Prevents contaminated milk getting into the bulk supply. This in turn protects the bulk tank cell count and Bactoscan.
• Actively reduces the quantity of repeat cases and so decreases the quantity of cows needing treatment
• Rapid reduction in cell count
• Rapid return to milk production
• Decreases the level of economic burden from treatment costs

In-line mastitis detectors have a number of advantages:

• Pick up clots
• Trap dirt or pieces of straw which helps focus the milker on improving teat preparation
• Large detectors make it easy to see these clots
• Large volume detectors, will not interfere with either vacuum stability or milk flow assuming that the detectors are kept clean.
• Reduces the total period of time that a cow needs to be milked separately.
• Returns milk yield to normal levels faster.

It is essential that operators check the in-line detectors after every cow is milked. if a cow is found to have mastitis her milk can then be discarded.
If there are clots in a detector, then the cow should be thoroughly examined for clinical mastitis. If in doubt, she can be rechecked at the next milking.

It is advisable to treat a cow on the basis that there are clots found in the filter alone.
The cow needs to be stripped to check in order to correctly check for the presence of clinical mastitis.
Remember that in-line detectors are an aid to mastitis detection but are not a diagnosis.