Evaluation of Effects of Milking Hygiene and Management Factor on Clinical Mastitis Incidence in Dairy Cows

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of clinical mastitis and somatic cell count (SCC) in six dairy herds which had different milking management and hygiene conditions. Four - hundred thirty one Holstein - Friesian cows were used in the study. The herds were classified to be good (Group 1, n = 2), medium (Group 2, n = 1) or bad (Group 3, n = 3) according to milking management and hygiene. The study was carried out on these 3 groups. Diagnosis of clinical mastitis was based on pathological symptoms in quarters and abnormal changes in milk. Rates of clinical cases were 20.2%, 28.3% and 36.5% for good, medium and bad conditions. Individual (ISCC) and bulk tank (BTSCC) somatic cell count were categorized to be low, medium and high. Of the quarters, 82% had low ISCC (<200.000 cells mL(-1)) in herds with good milking hygiene. Average ISCC and BTSCC values were higher in bad conditions than others (P<0.05).