How to Read Culture Plates

Using On Farm Culture to Improve Mastitis Treatment
Episode #7: How to Read Culture Plates

Remember, culturing allows us to reduce antibiotic use and costs by targeting responsive infections. When we culture on farm, it provides us faster results to guide selection of appropriate treatments. However, we need to know a little about culture counts and reading the culture plates first. In this episode, Dr. Pamela Ruegg discusses how to determine if culture growth that is seen on plates is likely from a mastitis infection or perhaps another cause: contamination. Ruegg then guides us through the 'thumb rules' of how to interpret culture counts.