Prevalence and risk factors associated with high somatic cell count in Chinese dairy herds

Abstract

This study aimed to (1) estimate the prevalence of cow-level high somatic cell count (SCC) in Chinese dairy herds and (2) identify potential factors associated with cow- and herd-level SCC variables. The monthly data on dairy herd improvement were collected from a total of 131 dairy herds in 11 provinces in China in 2019. Mixed models were constructed using the cow composite milk SCC and the variance of cow SCC as dependent variables separately and parity, seasons, days in milk (DIM), herd size, and farm types (family-owned vs. company-owned) as fixed effects, accounting for the nested random herd and cow effect. We used negative binomial regression using herd-level SCC-related variables, namely, monthly proportion of high SCC, monthly proportion of new high SCC, monthly proportion of chronic high SCC, and monthly proportion of new chronic high SCC as dependent variables separately against seasons, herd size, and farm types with the random herd effect. The overall average prevalence of high SCCs for each month per farm was 0.26 (2.5–97.5% quantile: 0–0.56). Company-owned farms performed better in herd SCC management. Seasons were significantly associated with all the aforementioned variables, and summer and autumn were the seasons associated with worse outcomes in herd SCCs. This study is the first to assess high SCC in a large number of Chinese dairy herds, which is useful for farms to tailor the on-farm mastitis control programs in China.