Quantifying current and future raw milk losses due to bovine mastitis on European dairy farms under climate change scenarios

Bovine mastitis is an infectious disease that causes udder inflammation and is responsible for raw milk losses across European dairy farms. It is associated with reduced cow milk yield and contributes to elevated Somatic Cell Count (SCC) in raw milk. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most prevalent mastitis pathogens that cause subclinical and clin-ical mastitis and can be present as a coloniser bacterium in cows. Climate change and geographical variability may in-fluence the prevalence of this pathogen. Thus, this research aimed to predict the raw milk losses in three major dairy-producing regions across Europe (i.e. Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental) under climate change scenarios. An ex-posure assessment model anda stepwise probabilistic model were developed to predict potential cow milk yield reduc-tion, S. aureus and SCC concentrations in the bulk tank milk at dairy farms. Baseline (i.e. present) and future climate change scenarios were defined, and the resultant concentrations of SCC and S. aureus were compared to the actual European regulatory limits. Across the three regions, raw milk losses ranged from 1.06% to 2.15% in the baseline. However, they increased up to 3.21% in the climate change scenarios when no on-farm improvements were consid-ered. Regarding geographical variation, the highest potential milk losses were reported for the Mediterranean and the lowest for the Continental region. Concerning the fulfilment of the regulatory limits, the mean of S. aureus and SCC levels in milk did not exceed them either in any region or scenario. Nevertheless, when looking at percentiles, the 10th percentile remained above the limits of S. aureus in Atlantic and Mediterranean, but not in the Continental region. The findings provide a snapshot of climate change impacts on raw milk losses due to mastitis. They will allow farmers to detect weaknesses and prepare them to develop adaptation plans to climate change.

Automated summary

This research predicts the raw milk losses due to mastitis under climate change scenarios in three major dairy-producing regions in Europe. The study reveals that climate change may result in reduced cow milk yield and elevated SCC in raw milk. Geographical variability also influences the losses, with the Mediterranean region reporting the highest potential milk losses and the Continental region reporting the lowest. The findings provide insights for farmers to detect weaknesses and develop adaptation plans to climate change.