CELULARIDADE DO LEITE NO DIAGNÓSTICO DE INFECÇÕES INTRAMAMÁRIAS EM BOVINOS

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the milk cellularity indicators in the diagnosis of bovine mastitis. To this end, 112 milk samples from 28 Holstein dairy cows were used. Bacteriological examination, automatic somatic cell count (SCC), California Mastitis test (CMT); and Wisconsin Mastitis test (WMT) were performed. The results showed that 30.36% of the milk samples were positive for bacteriological analysis, with Corynebacterium bovis being the most frequently isolated pathogen (58.82%), followed by Streptococcus dysgalactiae (38.24%), and Staphylococcus chromogenes (2.94%). The logarithmic values of SCC from the bacteriologically negative milk samples (4.59 ± 0.88) were lower than the bacteriologically positive milk samples (5.68 ± 0.70), as well as for those infected with Corynebacterium bovis (5.38 ± 0.66) and Streptococcus dysgalactiae (6.14 ± 0.48) (p < 0.0001). Significant correlation between SCC and CMT (r = 0.50; p < 0.0001) and WMT (r = 0.44; p < 0.0001) were found. The correlation between CMT and WMT was r = 0.23 (p = 0.0157). Thus, CMT and automatic SCC can be used to diagnose mastitis, once they are of easy and fast performance. Celularidade do leite no diagnóstico de infecções intramamárias em bovinos Milk cellularity in the diagnosis of intramammary infection in cattle