Immunity of the buffalo mammary gland during different physiological stages

Abstract

To study the immunity of the buffalo mammary gland during involution and around parturition and compare it with the mastitic mammary gland, milk samples were collected from 9 Murrah buffaloes during the above critical periods. SCC of buffalo milk increased significantly (p<0.01) by day 21 of involution and one week prepartum. SCC was significantly higher around parturition but became normal at 14 days postpartum. Phagocytic activity (PA) and phagocytic index (PI) of the buffalo milk neutrophils decreased as the duration of the dry period increased. Elevated levels of immunoglobulins at calving improved the PA and PI, but the lowest PA of 18.8% and PI of 1.75 were recorded at 7 days postpartum. Buffaloes suffering from clinical mastitis had PA of 12.3% and PI of 1.46 that increased significantly (p<0.01) on the third day of treatment. Distance of teat from ground level was found to be minimum at one week before parturition. The investigation showed that in vitro phagocytic activity of buffalo neutrophils was weakest at one week postpartum.