When it comes to putting milk on the table, one of the biggest challenges for the dairy industry worldwide is a disease called mastitis. 

A potentially deadly inflammation of the cow’s udder that lowers the quality and quantity of milk, mastitis costs the dairy sector in Canada more than $400 million a year. That’s why it’s a high-priority area of research for the University of Calgary’s new Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. 

“This is the number one disease affecting the dairy industry,” says Dr. Herman Barkema, who is overseeing a nationwide effort to combat the disease. Barkema is leading the mastitis monitoring project for a five-year, $7-million research partnership of provincial dairy boards, the dairy industry and dozens of researchers from universities across the country. 

Barkema, PhD student Vineet Saini, and field technicians Andrea Wasko and Anke Wellen are working with Alberta dairy farmers to investigate new prevention and treatment methods for the disease, which hits 20 percent of all Canadian dairy cows every year. 

“We work closely with farmers to get to know their operations,” says Saini, who came to the U of C from India and is studying antibiotic resistance in the mastitis bacteria. “They realize the value of participating in our research because we are trying to help them find solutions to problems they face every day.”

>> Index