Haptoglobin and Amyloid A Levels in Milk of Clinical and Subclinical Mastitic Cows in Turkey

Mastitis is one of the most common diseases in dairy cows and causes significant economic losses globally. We aimed to investigate whether haptoglobin (Hp) and amyloid A levels in milk may be an alternative method for diagnosing subclinical mastitis (SM) in dairy cows. Ten subclinical-, 16 clinical mastitis and 39 healthy Holstein cows were allocated to the study following California Mastitis Test (CMT). Thus, a total of 65 Holstein cows participated in the study. In the study, Staphylococcus aureus (n = 10) was isolated as the most dominant bacterial species seen in clinical and subclinical mastitis samples. Somatic cell counts (SCC) in cows with clinical mastitis were significantly higher than the milk of cows with subclinical mastitis and healthy cows. Milk serum haptoglobin (Hp) and amyloid A levels were not determined statistically different between groups (p> 0.05). No correlation was found between CMT scores, SCC values, Hp and milk amyloid A levels in milk serum. There were no significant differences in Hp, MAA levels and SCC in the milk of clinically healthy cows and cows with clinical and subclinical mastitis (p> 0.05). As a result, Hp and amyloid A levels in milk showed no proper parameters for diagnosing subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle and monitoring treatment efficacy. Acute-phase proteins have not yet been adequately studied and clinically used in dairy animals, routinely diagnostic and prognostic, but they are used in human medicine for these purposes.