Abstract :
Dry-off treatment of Assaf sheep by means of cow dry therapy tubes was tested. The sheep were treated 60 days before parturition
by injection of a whole tube of cow dry treatment into each udder half. The sheep were tested for bacterial status before and after the
treatment, to assess the success of the dry-off treatment, and were tested again at the end of colostrum milking to detect inhibiting
substances in the milk. The treatment proved to be successful: bacterial infection decreased from about 60 to about 20%, and the
somatic cell count in the bulk tank milk fell from about 2500×103 to less than 1000×103 cellsmL−1. Concomitantly, the average
milk production per ewe increased from 395 to 487 L year−1.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
