Mastitis is the most prevalent and costly production disease in the dairy industry, but udder health advice that helps one herd might not be beneficial for another because of “local truths”. It is therefore important to identify what mastitis control options may work in a specific herd in the conditions specific to the herd. We evaluated whether the Evolutionary Operation (EVOP) methodology could be used as a management tool to identify mastitis control options to improve udder health in dairy herds. Within an EVOP framework we conducted sequences of experiments, on each of two dairy farms in Sweden. The experiments covered interventions within 1) hygiene in cubicles, 2) milking routines, and 3) dry-off procedures. Automatically recorded somatic cell counts (SCCs) in milk were used as the response variable. The impact of the interventions on SCC was evaluated with multivariate dynamic linear models. Farmer and staff satisfaction was assessed through interviews. The EVOP methodology was successfully applied, and the farmers appreciated it. We observed herd-specific variation in the effect of the interventions, indicating that EVOP would be a feasible approach to tailor mastitis control options to individual herds. Our results indicate that the EVOP methodology could be a tool to identify and evaluate health management strategies on dairy farms.

乳腺炎是乳制品行业中最普遍、最昂贵的生产疾病，但由于“当地事实”，有助于一个牛群的乳房健康建议可能对另一个牛群并不有益。因此，重要的是要确定哪些乳腺炎控制方案可以在特定牛群的特定条件下对特定牛群起作用。我们评估了进化操作（EVOP）方法是否可以用作管理工具来确定乳腺炎控制方案，以改善奶牛群的乳房健康。在 EVOP 框架内，我们在瑞典的两个奶牛场中分别进行了一系列实验。实验涵盖 1) 隔间卫生、2) 挤奶程序和 3) 干燥程序等干预措施。自动记录的牛奶中体细胞计数（SCC）被用作响应变量。使用多元动态线性模型评估干预措施对鳞状细胞癌的影响。通过访谈评估农民和工作人员的满意度。 EVOP方法得到了成功应用，并得到了农民的赞赏。我们观察到干预措施效果的牛群特异性差异，表明 EVOP 将是针对个体牛群定制乳腺炎控制方案的可行方法。我们的结果表明，EVOP 方法可以成为识别和评估奶牛场健康管理策略的工具。