Abstract
Control of udder health is an essential element in the process of safe milk production. Thus through the mastitis control program dairy farms regularly conduct measures of detection and prevention of udder diseases. Subclinical mastitis is an important disease of dairy cows causing economic losses and physical and chemical changes in milk. The aim of this research was to evaluate the usefulness of the California and the Draminski mastitis test to detect the subclinical mastitis in dairy cows. The efficacy of indirect mastitis tests for diagnosis of the subclinical mastitis was determined by comparing results of mastitis tests with bacteriological findings. The experiment was conducted on two dairy farms (farm A and farm B) Holstein - Friesian breed. A total of 245 quarter milk samples were examined, 95 quarter milk samples with the California mastitis test from farm A and 150 quarter milk samples with the Draminski mastitis test from farm B. A quarter milk samples for bacteriological analysis were taken aseptically during the morning milking in sterile test tubes. On farm A, bacteria growth has not been detected in 46.32% (44/95) quarter milk samples, while on farm B negative bacteriological findings have been found in 50.67% samples (76/150). In present study, sensitivity of the California mastitis test (78.57%) is higher than sensitivity of the Draminski mastitis test (74.32%). The specificity of the California mastitis test and the Draminski mastitis test is 82.05% and 30.26%, respectively. Efficacy of the California mastitis test in detection of the subclinical mastitis in dairy cows is better than that of the Draminski mastitis test, since accuracy of the California mastitis test has been higher.
Highlights
In modern livestock industry, mastitis is one of the most important diseases of dairy cows which cause a huge production loss
The aim of this research was to evaluate the usefulness of the California and the Draminski mastitis test to detect the subclinical mastitis in dairy cows
On farm A, the California mastitis test was used for detection of subclinical mastitis, and a total of 95 quarter milk samples were examined
Summary
Mastitis is one of the most important diseases of dairy cows which cause a huge production loss. Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland that leads to physical and chemical changes in milk and affects on the production of dairy cows (Khan and Khan, 2006; Boboš et al, 2013). Detection of mastitis is important for dairy farmers to reduce economic losses which are associated with reduction in yield, increased treatment costs and discarded milk (Bhutto et al, 2012). Mastitis most common occurs in one of two forms - a clinical or a subclinical infection. Detection of clinical mastitis is easy, because of the visible changes in the affected mammary gland and its secretion, while diagnosis of subclinical is problematic since cow shows no physical symptoms. The milk can appears normal during subclinical mastitis, but more common can notice the increase somatic cell count and concentration of certain ions, Na+, K+, and Cl-
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