Responsible use of antimicrobials in mastitis therapy requires good cooperation between everyone involved. To this end, it is important to record and understand farmers’ behaviors and needs with regard to treatment. This survey, therefore, aimed to identify characteristics of antibiotic udder injectors that are important to farmers. Farmers’ attitudes regarding the future relevance of diagnostics and antibiotic use in mastitis treatment were also to be determined. In addition, it was asked which pathogens are frequently found on the farms and which are the most commonly used antibiotic udder injectors on the farms. The purpose of the survey was to capture the status quo to determine future changes associated with the introduction of the parameter treatment frequency at the farm level required by Regulation (EU) 2019/6 starting in 2023, based on further surveys. 250 farms from northern, western, and eastern Germany were randomly selected for the survey, of which 99 farms participated in the period from March to October 2021.
The results showed that Streptococcus uberis was the most important pathogen on the farms, followed by coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Escherichia coli. The experiences of farmers and veterinarians from previous mastitis therapies represented a determining factor in deciding which antibiotic agent to use for the treatment of mastitis. Agents with a combination of cefalexin/kanamycin and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid/prednisolone were used most frequently. However, critical antibiotics containing cefquinome and in small numbers cefoperazone were still used. Most farmers preferred a treatment frequency of 12 or 24 hours but were open regarding the respective number of udder injectors to be administered. There was some uncertainty about treatment efficacy, which is why many of the respondents currently still preferred broad-spectrum antibiotics. However, the majority agreed that drug selection must shift toward narrow-spectrum antibiotics in the future. There is interest and willingness among farmers to use more on-farm diagnostics in the future and thus treat mastitis more selectively. This willingness should be used to establish selective therapy concepts based on such immediate diagnostics on farms in the future. In addition, a change in the selection of active ingredients to narrow-spectrum products must be further promoted.