Microbiological examination, California Mastitis Test and Somaticell® evaluation of subclinical mastitis diagnosis in dairy cows

The goal of this research was to analyze the sensibility, especificity and agreement among the California Mastitis Test (C.M.T.), the microbiological examination and the Somaticell (R) in the diagnosis of the subclinical mastitis in dairy cows. The samples (n = 308) were simultaneously evaluated in the three tests and from the analyzed samples 65.6% showed reaction to the CMT (scores +, ++, +++), being the higher percentage (38.3%) obtained for the score +++ and the second (34.4%) corresponded to the negative cases. In the milk microbiological examination it was obtained 74.4% of positive cases, being isolated as more frequent agents Staphylococcus spp (69.9%), Streptococcus spp (11.0%) and Corynebacterium spp (9.6%). In Somaticell it was found that 62.7% of the samples showed positive reaction and 37.3% showed negative results. The results allow to conclude that Somaticell (R) is a fast and practical method, presents satisfactory results in the detection of positive samples for microbiological examination and may be recommended as a screening test for the diagnosis of individual cases of subclinical mastitis.