M. Cergolj¹, A. Tomašković¹, J. Grizelj¹, N. Prvanović¹, M. Benić², I.
Curik 4 , N. Maćešić¹, Z. Geci³,
¹
4
Introduction
Processes of controlling diseases of the udder in many countries resulted with significant decrease of mastitis. The state of health of the udder is one of the most important factors of the hygienic quality of the milk and represents the fundamental aspiration of the modern dairy industry.
There are quite a few data about the health status of the udder in our country considering the changes which occured in the organization of the veterinary service and situations which occurred during and post war. Majić (1994.) reported on veterinary principles of control of mastitis, while Topolko and
Benić (1997.) reported about the subclinical mastitis. Those reports show us that the state of health of the udder in Croatia is worse in comparison with EU countries. Their research stated that more than
20% of the milk samples contained more than 500 000 somatic cells/mL. It is pointed out by scientific research that the mastitis is the multidisciplinary problem which includes, except clinical, the immunological, nutritive, microbiological, zoohigienic (management) and genetic factors.
It is obvious that the method, technology and the milking machines have direct influence on the incidence of the mastitis as well as on the state of health of the udder (Laevens 1994, Rasmussen
1998). The milking problem is especially seen in the most productive cows (flow >4.0 kg/min) because of their inadequate size and the shape of their teat. The recommendations for the mastitis prevention is to adapt the pressure and to cut the milk-tube as well as the replace the automatic system with the electronic system of draining (Hamann, 1993). The main problem due to machine milking is that there is too high pressure in the milking system (O´Callaghan, 1996). It was established that after milking under the pressure of 25-30 kPa, the reaction of the udder tissue is normal, while under the 40-50 kPa oedema and opturation occurs.
Within the standard diagnostic methods of mastitis (clinical examination, survey on the black foil, mastitis test, bacteriological analysis) recently it became customary to determine the number of somatic cells (SCC) as the most competent indicator of the prevalence of mastitis in current and future lactations. There are some additional methods commonly used such as determination of chlorids, bovine serum albumine and enzymes in the milk: ATR (alfa 1 antitripsin) and NAG (N-acetil-beta-Dglucosamidasis) described by Huszenicza 1997.
Throughout the years of monitoring and individual surveillance of the SCC, it became obvious that there is a correlation between the number of cells during the first lactation and the mastitis occurance in the following lactations (Rupp, 2000). It is understood that there is a correlation between the SCC number and the teat characteristics (shape, length, longitudinal section - Chrystal, 1999). Some authors consider that the cows with the lower number of SCC will maintain better quality throughout the following lactations (Osteres, Edge, 2000) as well as less frequent mastitis occurance (Rupp, 2000).
Material and methods
The main goal of our research work was to determine influence of close monitoring of dairy cows on the incidence of clinical and subclinical mastitis and consequently milk production.
We performed our research on two groups of symmental cows. First group (26 cows) were held in stables and milked on free stall barn while second group (24 cows) were held in dairy farm and milked on herringbone parlour.
We monitored morphological conformation of the udder, physical characteristics of the teat pre and postmilking (teat lenght and teat width pre and postmilking), influence of desinfection and different milking equipment. We also took samples for bacteriological analysis from the teat apex, teat skin, milking-tube and from the cow environment. We also analysed anamnestical data about previus incidence of mastitis. We also took milk samples for bacteriological analysis and total number of bacteria in milk. We preformed mastitis test and antibiogram for all cows. We compared obtained data

for group of cows milked on free stall barn with group of cows milked on herringbone parlour. The analysis was performed using SAS/STAT package (SAS Institute 1999) and the ANOVA analysis
(PROC GLM).
Results and discussion
It is undoubted that better monitoring of dairy cows can help in prompt detection of subclinical mastitis, adequate treatment and decrease of costs. In our study we analysed correlations and influence of mastitis test, somatic cell count (SCC), prevalence of mastitis according to anamnestic data with morphological teat traits pre and post milking and bacteriological teat smears from teat orificium and teat skin as comparison of efficacy of disinfection made by owners and our team.
The ANOVA analysis (PROC GLM) showed that mastitis test and teat diameter did not have been significantly affected by the way of keeping the cows. In contrary, there was highly significant
(P<0.0001) difference between two ways of keeping for teat length (coefficient of determination was equal to 0.387). The same results were obtained when data were analysed by generalized linear models
(PROC GENMODE dist=poisson link=log).
Significant linear correlations were obtained between teat length and teat diameter for the first way of keeping. Although, close to significant, nonsignificant correlations were obtained for second way of keeping. Nonsignificant results for the second way is most probably due to the small sample size.
When we were looking at the correlations between different teats in most cases the correlations were significant for the size measures (PROC CORR). Significant spearman correlations were, also, obtained for MT. For the second group we performed analysis (spearman correlation; PROC CORR spearman) between smears and between smears and mastitis test and no significant correlations appeared.
Hamman (1993) recommend the adaptation of the pressure in the milking system as well as replacement of the automatic system by the electronic system of draining. He suggested that changes in teat length, diameter, thickness and compressibility after milking at low vacuum levels mainly reflect tissue responses to udder evacuation. In contrast, increased teat wall thickness and reduced compressibility of teat tissue at higher vacuum levels likely result mainly from machine-induced oedema. In our research the owners milked their animals with different and mostly old and badly maintained fashioned milking equipment what definitely influenced on our findings.
We can confirm, as formerly noted by Chrystal (1999) that wider teat diameters were associated with higher SCC.
Keeping in mind all given data we can conclude that monitoring of mastitis test, somatic cell count
(SCC), prevalence of mastitis according to anamnestic data with morphological teat traits pre and post milking and bacteriological teat smears from teat orificium and teat skin as comparison of efficacy of disinfection made by owner and our team can help in prevention and eradication of subclinical mastitis but we definitely need to include more morphological udder traits and also compare it with heritability in herd as well as maintaining of milking equipment.
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