Short communication: Dipping efficiency and teat dip residues in milk using an automatic dipping system

Prototypes of the automatic-dipping system Apollo were tested with the IQ milking cluster (GEA Farm Technologies GmbH, Bönen, Germany) to determine the teat-dip residues in the milk and the dipping performance (number of dipped teats) of the system compared with manual (hand) dipping. A laboratory trial and a field trial at a dairy farm were performed to determine the iodine level in the milk when an iodine-based teat dip was used. In the laboratory trial, the mean difference between the 53 paired samples (sampling upstream and downstream of the cluster) was 18.9 ± 3.18 μg of iodine/kg. A field trial at a 300-cow commercial dairy farm consisted of taking 2 sets of individual cow milk samples 6 wk apart. Three weeks before the second test day, the iodine-based teat dip was replaced by an iodine-free teat dip. The mean difference between the 2 sets of 55 samples was 25.1 ± 5.22 μg/kg. Compared with manually applying an iodine-based teat dip, the increase in the iodine content resulting from the use of the tested cluster with automatic dipping was very low and would not be an issue of food safety. The dipping performance tests were completed on the same 300-cow commercial dairy farm as the field iodine level trial was performed. In total, 4,541 teats from 307 cows were observed on 4 consecutive days, showing a 91.6 ± 1.3% success rate.