  
No matter how hard you try to prevent mastitis, the threat will never completely disappear. Intelligent Mastitis Management means
that when you do have to treat a cow for mastitis, you can get valuable pre-treatment answers that are more accurate,
more cost effective, and faster. That is the definition of the ImmuCell MASTiK® Test kit — the only
antibiotic susceptibility test that uses a milk-based culture medium and gives you answers up to 3 times faster than
traditional methods.
More information about Intelligent Mastitis Management and
MASTiK® Results Interpretation is available here.
Faster
Until now, culturing and isolating the mastitis organism before sensitivity testing wasted valuable treatment
time. And, because standard tests usually take 30 to 48 hours – plus sample transit time – the animal
could lose more milk, lose a quarter or even die.
New MASTiK® is run directly on the milk sample without prior pathogen isolation. Results are generally
available in 12 hours (chronic cases slightly longer.) The on-farm use of MASTiK® for early treatment
decisions, provides a greater chance of success.
More Accurate
Unlike traditional tests using artificial laboratory media, MASTiK® is run in the same media you treat in —
infected milk! It’s accurate and less complicated. MASTiK® tells you which of the most commonly used antibiotics
are likely to be effective for treatment.
Easy to Perform
MASTiK® not only takes the guesswork out of treating mastitis, but is also simple to use. The kit comes complete
with the materials you need and easy-to-follow directions. All you supply is the incubator. (If an incubator is not
available, contact ImmuCell for information on the inexpensive, portable “Unibator”).
Cost Effective
 MASTiK® costs less than a traditional culture and sensitivity test.
Unused test panels can be stored for months with no waste!
Select an antibiotic with the shortest withdrawal time reducing
milk discard.
Early and effective drug therapy can reduce antibiotic use.
 Step 1
Add 1 ml of mastitis sample to MASTiK® Reagent vial.
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Step 2
Incubate for 1–3 hours at 36°C
(95–99°F)
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 Step 3
Add 2 drops of sample/reagent mixture to each of the wells
in a section of the MASTiK® plate.
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Step 4
Incubate and examine every 4 to 8 hours for color changes.
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Step 5
Interpret and record the results.
(Six tests per plate as shown.)
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Comparative Study Results
In a published study from the Department of Veterinary Preventive
Medicine at Ohio State
University, researchers concluded:
“… results from our study indicate that the MASTiK® system is an
acceptable substitute and, in fact, may have certain advantages over the Kirby-Bauer disc
assay …”
Ref: Hoblet K.H. et al., Antibiotic Susceptibility Test for Mastitis: A Comparison
of a
Commercial Test Kit with Kirby-Bauer.
Ag Prac 14:7, 1993
Related Links for Intelligent Mastitis Management
Mastitis and its Control, a publication by dairy specialists
Mastitis, lessons A & B from a University of Illinois biology class
Prepping cows saves time and money (To view this link you will need Adobe’s FREE Acrobat Reader.
*ImmuCell entered into a product development
and marketing agreement with Pfizer Animal Health, a division of
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), for Mast Out®, a Nisin-based treatment
for mastitis in lactating dairy cows. The transaction entails
ImmuCell receiving an up front payment of $1,500,000 from Pfizer
as well as contingent milestone payments and royalties on sales.
ImmuCell granted Pfizer a worldwide, exclusive, long-term
license to sell the product. Pfizer will be responsible for
clinical, regulatory and commercial manufacturing development.
ImmuCell will supply product for efficacy trials that are
expected to begin in the first half of 2005. In January 2004,
ImmuCell announced statistically significant cure rates in an
experimental field trial of Mast Out® involving 139 cows with
subclinical mastitis. FDA-approved mastitis treatments currently
on the market have the disadvantage of requiring that milk from
treated cows be discarded for a period during and after
treatment. Mast Out® has the potential to earn regulatory
approval for the treatment of mastitis without this discard
requirement.
ImmuCell will continue to make and sell Wipe Out® Dairy Wipes, a topical Nisin-based
product used to prepare the cow’s teat area prior to milking. ImmuCell
also plans to continue investigating other potential Nisin-containing products
to the proof-of-concept stage for evaluation of their global market potential by
Pfizer or others. Pfizer has an option to negotiate rights to any such animal
health product with an intramammary application.
Image Credit: Dairy Herd Management
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Preventing mastitis is the most important facet of an Intelligent Mastitis
Management program. It’s the old ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure argument. In addition to all the nutrition, environmental
hygiene, milking machine maintenance, and other practices, cow prep is
critical for udder health. That is where Wipe Out® Dairy Wipes come in.
They’re The One Step Cow Prep® and intelligent producers are adopting
Wipe Out® every day. Find out why, below.
