title: Associations of udder-health indicators with cow factors and with intramammary infection in dairy cows.
abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate if and how cow factors and intramammary infection (IMI) are associated with 4 different udder-health indicators in dairy cows as a first step in investigating whether the diagnostic performance of these indicators can be improved. The investigated indicators were somatic cell count (SCC), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (NAGase), and alkaline phosphatase (AP) measured in milk. In this cross-sectional study, approximately 1,000 cows from 25 dairy herds were sampled for bacteriology (quarter milk samples) during 3 consecutive days: the day before test milking, at the day of test milking, and at the day after test milking. The whole-udder test milking sample was analyzed for milk composition, SCC, LDH, NAGase, and AP. Cow data (parity, breed, milk yield, percentage of milk fat and protein, milk urea concentration, and days in milk from the sampled test milking) were collected from the Swedish milk-recording scheme. Of the sampled cows 485 were considered IMI negative and were used in multivariable mixed-effect linear regression models to investigate associations between cow factors and the udder-health indicators. A second modeling including all cows, both IMI negative and IMI positive (256 cows), was also performed. The results showed that all udder-health indicators were affected by cow factors but that different cow factors were associated with different indicators. Intramammary-infection status was significantly associated with all udder-health indicators except AP. Parity and milk urea concentration were the only cow factors associated with all indicators in all models. The significant cow factors explained 23% of the variation in SCC and >30% of the variation in LDH, NAGase, and AP in IMI-negative cows, showing that LDH, NAGase, and AP are more affected than SCC by cow factors. The IMI status explained 23% of the variation in SCC in the model with all cows but only 7% of the variation in LDH and 2% of the variation in NAGase, indicating that SCC has the best potential as a diagnostic tool in finding cows with IMI. However, further studies are needed to investigate whether the diagnostic properties of these udder-health indicators will improve with adjustment according to their associations with different cow factors when used as a diagnostic tool for finding cows with IMI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Health and Antimicrobial Strategies, National Veterinary Institute (SVA), SE-751 89 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: ann.nyman@sva.se.
authors.forename: A-K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Nyman
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Health and Antimicrobial Strategies, National Veterinary Institute (SVA), SE-751 89 Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7054, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Persson Waller
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 20, Tjele, Denmark.
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Bennedsgaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 20, Tjele, Denmark.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7054, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Emanuelson
mesh_terms: D000118:Acetylglucosaminidase / Q000378:metabolism; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002452:Cell Count / Q000662:veterinary; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism; D016014:Linear Models; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000382:microbiology*; D008414:Mastitis, Bovine / Q000382:microbiology*; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology; D010325:Pasteurella / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011247:Pregnancy; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase; D000118:Acetylglucosaminidase
keywords: N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase; alkaline phosphatase; lactate dehydrogenase; somatic cell count