Founded by the Israel Dairy Board, Israel Cattle Breeders Association, and the Dairy Industry,”The National Service for Udder Health and Milk Quality” is a non profit organization, whose objective is to improve the udder health and milk quality of all milk producers (cows, sheep & goats) in Israel. Today the “National Service” is the operative branch of the Israel Dairy Board, providing services to all milk producers with milk quotas, by virtue of a levy on each liter of marketed milk.

The “National Service” was streamlined in 1997 from five regional laboratories to its present form. There is one Mastitis diagnostic laboratory situated in Caesarea, serving all herds, between the Golan Heights in the North, and as far as Eilat in the South. The laboratory also serves as a bacteriological reference laboratory for the “Bactoscan” of the Central milk components laboratory.

The proximity of the two laboratories enables samples for analysis sent by dairy farmers from mastitic cows to be forwarded to Caesarea, together with the samples for milk components that are sent daily by the processing plants from all over the country. There is no further payment from the producers.

The staff of the “National Service” works in close co-operation with the Mastitis Reference Center at the Kimron Veterinary Institute.