Assessment of the relationship between differential somatic cell count and presence of subclinical mastitis

Abstract

Somatic cell count (SCC) is commonly used for the identifica­tion of cows with subclinical mastitis. Differential somatic cell count (DSCC) represents a novel diagnostic method that allows for the identification and quantification of the different types of inflammatory cells in milk samples (neutrophils (NEU), lym­phocytes (LYM) and macrophages (MAC)) and thus the propor­tions of different cell types could be utilized for subclinical mastitis screening. The objective of this study was to investi­gate if the counts and abundance of different leukocytes types could be used for the identification of cows with subclinical mastitis.