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Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Mastitis is a costly disease and needs to be identified as soon as possible to reduce the negative effect on milk quality and quantity and to maximize the chance of cure when an antimicrobial therapy is applied. Bacteriological diagnosis is expensive and not easily available in some...

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Autores principales: Zecconi, Alfonso, Meroni, Gabriele, Sora, Valerio, Mattina, Roberto, Cipolla, Micaela, Zanini, Lucio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001259/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33800067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11030727
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author Zecconi, Alfonso
Meroni, Gabriele
Sora, Valerio
Mattina, Roberto
Cipolla, Micaela
Zanini, Lucio
author_facet Zecconi, Alfonso
Meroni, Gabriele
Sora, Valerio
Mattina, Roberto
Cipolla, Micaela
Zanini, Lucio
author_sort Zecconi, Alfonso
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Mastitis is a costly disease and needs to be identified as soon as possible to reduce the negative effect on milk quality and quantity and to maximize the chance of cure when an antimicrobial therapy is applied. Bacteriological diagnosis is expensive and not easily available in some areas, therefore approaches to reduce the number of samples to be taken, focusing the interest on cows with higher chances to have an intramammary infections are desirable. The results of our study based on a large database of quarter milk samples analyses including bacteriological analysis, total (SCC) and differential (DSCC) cell count in the first 5–30 days after calving suggest a new and sustainable approach. Indeed, a marker (PLCC) calculated by multiplying SCC and DSCC showed to have the lowest cost when applied to identify udder quarters at risk to have an intramammary infection due to major pathogens. Moreover, this approach as well as the one based on SCC became a benefit when the prevalence of these infections exceeds 10%, and it be of high interest, when selective dry cow therapy is applied, to improve animal health at the herd level. ABSTRACT: Milk differential somatic cells count (DSCC), made possible under field conditions by the recent availability of a high-throughput milk analyzer may represent an improvement in mastitis diagnosis. While an increasing number of studies reports data on DSCC on individual cow samples, very few concerns DSCC from quarter milk samples. This paper reports for the first time the results of a retrospective study aiming to assess the performance of total (SCC), DSCC, and a novel calculated marker (PLCC) measured on quarter milk samples as a method to identify cows at risk for intramammary infection (IMI) in the first 30 days after calving. Overall, 14,586 valid quarter milk samples (3658 cows) taken in the first 30 days of lactation were considered. Quarters with major pathogens (MP) IMI, as expected, showed significantly higher means for SCC, DSCC, and PLCC. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the diagnosis based on different cut-offs calculated by ROC analysis are relatively close among DSCC, PLCC, and SCC (up to cut-off of 200,000 cells/mL). However, decision-tree analysis which includes the costs of analysis, but also the costs of the actions taken after test results showed as PLCC has the lowest cost among the three markers, and PLCC and SCC are cost effective when MP prevalence is higher than 6–10%. This diagnostic approach is of high interest particularly when selective dry cow therapy is applied to improve animal health at the herd level.
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spelling pubmed-80012592021-03-28 Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving Zecconi, Alfonso Meroni, Gabriele Sora, Valerio Mattina, Roberto Cipolla, Micaela Zanini, Lucio Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Mastitis is a costly disease and needs to be identified as soon as possible to reduce the negative effect on milk quality and quantity and to maximize the chance of cure when an antimicrobial therapy is applied. Bacteriological diagnosis is expensive and not easily available in some areas, therefore approaches to reduce the number of samples to be taken, focusing the interest on cows with higher chances to have an intramammary infections are desirable. The results of our study based on a large database of quarter milk samples analyses including bacteriological analysis, total (SCC) and differential (DSCC) cell count in the first 5–30 days after calving suggest a new and sustainable approach. Indeed, a marker (PLCC) calculated by multiplying SCC and DSCC showed to have the lowest cost when applied to identify udder quarters at risk to have an intramammary infection due to major pathogens. Moreover, this approach as well as the one based on SCC became a benefit when the prevalence of these infections exceeds 10%, and it be of high interest, when selective dry cow therapy is applied, to improve animal health at the herd level. ABSTRACT: Milk differential somatic cells count (DSCC), made possible under field conditions by the recent availability of a high-throughput milk analyzer may represent an improvement in mastitis diagnosis. While an increasing number of studies reports data on DSCC on individual cow samples, very few concerns DSCC from quarter milk samples. This paper reports for the first time the results of a retrospective study aiming to assess the performance of total (SCC), DSCC, and a novel calculated marker (PLCC) measured on quarter milk samples as a method to identify cows at risk for intramammary infection (IMI) in the first 30 days after calving. Overall, 14,586 valid quarter milk samples (3658 cows) taken in the first 30 days of lactation were considered. Quarters with major pathogens (MP) IMI, as expected, showed significantly higher means for SCC, DSCC, and PLCC. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the diagnosis based on different cut-offs calculated by ROC analysis are relatively close among DSCC, PLCC, and SCC (up to cut-off of 200,000 cells/mL). However, decision-tree analysis which includes the costs of analysis, but also the costs of the actions taken after test results showed as PLCC has the lowest cost among the three markers, and PLCC and SCC are cost effective when MP prevalence is higher than 6–10%. This diagnostic approach is of high interest particularly when selective dry cow therapy is applied to improve animal health at the herd level. MDPI 2021-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8001259/ /pubmed/33800067 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11030727 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Zecconi, Alfonso
Meroni, Gabriele
Sora, Valerio
Mattina, Roberto
Cipolla, Micaela
Zanini, Lucio
Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving
title Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving
title_full Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving
title_fullStr Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving
title_full_unstemmed Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving
title_short Total and Differential Cell Counts as a Tool to Identify Intramammary Infections in Cows after Calving
title_sort total and differential cell counts as a tool to identify intramammary infections in cows after calving
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001259/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33800067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11030727
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