We respect the assessment of hands-on experience in real daily farm settings that was part of this study. We’ve shared an excerpt of the summary verbatim.
Using on-farm tests in farmers’ decision-making process resulted in more treatments in accordance with the etiology of mastitis than without on-farm testing. A diagnosis and treatment strategy with on-farm testing is advised in cows with clinical mastitis to enhance prudent antimicrobial use.
For subclinical mastitis, however, on-farm testing may lead to an unacceptable increase in use of antimicrobials and thus should not be advised as the common approach.
Source: Journal of Dairy Science, March 1, 2021. Link.
INSIGHTS: Imagine dairy DVMs talking about these results, “. . . damned if you do, damned if you don’t!”