Efficacy of two barrier iodine teat dips under natural exposure conditions

The efficacy of 2 iodine barrier teat dips was compared with a conventional iodine postmilking teat dip. The products were evaluated using a natural exposure trial on a 250-cow dairy based on the National Mastitis Council guidelines. Bacteriological samples were taken every 2 wk over 6 mo. All dips contained 1.0% available iodine and high levels of free iodine for germicidal efficacy. Barrier 1 was an experimental dip containing 14 to 20 ppm of free iodine, barrier 2 contained 8 to 14 ppm of free iodine, and the nonbarrier control contained 12 to 16 ppm of free iodine. The average free iodine for barrier 1 and barrier 2 combined was 14 ppm, which was equal to the average free iodine for the positive control. A 21% reduction of new intramammary infections (IMI) was observed for the 2 barrier dips combined when compared with the nonbarrier control. A significant reduction of 38% was observed for the clinical infection rate for barrier 1 when compared with barrier 2; however, barrier 1 did not significantly reduce the subclinical IMI when compared with barrier 2. Barrier 1 significantly reduced the combined clinical and subclinical IMI by 24% when compared with the positive control. The skin condition showed slight variation among the dips over the course of the trial, but no difference was observed at the end of the trial. Barrier 1, with the highest concentration of free iodine, gave the best efficacy results of all 3 dips.