According to a new publication shared by Lallemand Animal Nutrition, the use of a dedicated microbial based bedding conditioner, which contains selected live bacteria and enzymes, can benefit udder health by maintaining bedding quality.
Lallemand Animal Nutrition has shared the results of a recent scientific publication showing that the application of a dedicated microbial bedding conditioner preserves the quality of the bedding material and has positive outcomes on the maintenance of udder health and cow health (Dunière et al., 2024).
Dairy cows spend, on average, 10 to 13 hours per day lying down. This is also how long their teats are in direct contact with the bedding materials – making it easy to realize how important it is to maintain good bedding quality. Deteriorated bedding may ultimately impact udder health (for example, somatic cell counts) and farm revenue.
The published study evaluates a dedicated microbial based bedding conditioner, MANURE PRO, which contains selected live bacteria and enzymes that promotes the development of these beneficial microorganisms when applied to the bedding material.
MANURE PRO was used on a bedding material consisting of recycled manure solids (RMS) in the study. RMS is obtained by mechanically separating manure removed from dairy cow housing systems. Its low cost of recovery, as well as wide availability, has allowed RMS to be used as an alternative source of bedding. While an economic and sustainable solution for dairy farms, RMS can pose a higher challenge in terms of microbial pressure on the animals.
The scientists used specific omics techniques (16S amplicon sequencing) to decipher the effect of the microbial bedding conditioner on the bedding microbiota.
The increase in SCC seen in the control pens was not observed in MANURE PRO pens, meaning that MANURE PRO – through maintenance of the bedding microbial quality – significantly helped keep a low SCC level in milk during the summer months.
“Interestingly, we found that the application of the microbial bedding conditioner modified the profiles and diversity of the bedding microbiota, while the control bedding was significantly associated with potential mastitis pathogens, we did not detect such undesirable bacteria in the MANURE PRO treated RMS bedding. The bedding physio-chemical quality was also improved by the use of the bedding conditioner. When we looked at the teat skin microbiota, we made the same observations: microorganisms potentially associated with mastitis were mainly observed on the skin of the control cows and were not present in the cows from the MANURE PRO pens. In summary, the use of MANURE PRO is shown to help maintain microbial bedding quality and this is translated into lower somatic cell counts in milk (Figure 1),” explained Lysiane Duniere, Ph.D., Research Scientist for Lallemand Animal Nutrition.
