Veterinary Public Health Institute

Completed Projects

Udder Health Program

references of farmers and veterinarians for the design of a Swiss national udder health program

Anna Schwendner

Duration: October 2013 – June 2015

Plenty of scientific knowledge on mastitis and antimicrobial usage has been gathered in the last couple of years in Switzerland and this may serve as a basis for a new udder health/antimicrobial usage program for Switzerland. The knowledge, attitude and practices of dairy farmers and veterinarians towards the usage of antimicrobials and their opinions towards a national udder health program have not been determined yet though but they are considered to be crucial for a reduction of the antimicrobial usage without negatively affecting udder health. The aims of this project are to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices of farmers and veterinarians towards antimicrobial usage and their preferences for the design of a Swiss national udder health program.

Staff involved: Anna Schwendner, Bart van den Borne, Gertraud Schüpbach (VPHI) and Theo Lam (Utrecht University, the Netherlands)