Critical Thresholds of Milk SCC, EC and pH for Detection of Sub-Clinical Mastitis in Crossbred Cows Reared under Subtropical Agroclimatic Condition

Abstract

Early identification of mastitis in sub-clinical stage could be helpful for implementation of effective managemental interventions to reduce the economic losses. Milk samples were divided into two groups based on CMT score (CMT score 1 indicated healthy and CMT score 2-3 indicated SCM). Milk SCC, pH and EC value in SCM were significantly higher compared to healthy samples. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that milk SCC, pH and EC discriminated SCM quarters from healthy quarters with 99.97%, 93.42% and 99.09% accuracy. The critical threshold value of milk SCC, EC and pH were observed to be 245×10³ cells/ml, 5.065 mS/cm and 6.605, respectively for identification of SCM quarters. ROC analysis revealed that milk SCC was more accurate to discriminate healthy and mastitic udder with critical threshold of milk SCC (245×10³ cells/ml).