Association of selected risk factors with bovine subclinical mastitis

Abstract

A total of 695 Holstein Friesian lactating dairy cows were examined for the prevalence of subclinical mastitis (SCM) and its association with selected risk factors in a private dairy farm at Fayoum district, Egypt. 444 lactating cows with 1145 quarters were found positive for SCM with prevalence of 63.88% and 41.18% at cow and quarter level respectively based on California Mastitis Test (CMT), Electrical Conductivity (EC) that had a mean value of 6.27 ± 0.066 mS/cm and Somatic Cell Count (SCC) with a mean value of 8.8×10⁵ ± 9.2×10³ cells/ml. The risk factors investigated in this study revealed that the highest percentage of SCM was observed in winter, in cows at the late lactation stage with a percentage of 32.21 and 59.91 respectively. The results concluded that the young age cows were exposed to SCM more than old ones. While the occurrence of SCM was higher in cows with 2^nd, 3^rd and 1^st than those with 4, 5, 6^th parity number. The analytical results also revealed that there is a highly significant difference (p < 0.05) between numbers of parity. However, there is no significant difference (p > 0.05) between different stages of age, lactation and season as risk factors.