Estimation of the impact of somatic cell count on daily milk yield at different lactation stages of Iranian dairy cows using quantile regression

The aim of the present study was to estimate the impact of somatic cell count on daily milk yield of Iranian dairy cows using quantile regression statistical technique. A total of 784,532 test day records belonging to 93,259 first-parity cows distributed in 660 herds and calved during 2003-2013 were used. The studied trait was test day milk yield and the model was defined as a quantile regression. All of the estimated regression coefficients were negative, which indicated a decrease in the amount of daily milk production when milk somatic cell counts increased, so that, in the spite of lactation stage, on the basis of absolute value, the lowest and highest regression coefficients observed at ninety-fifth percentile and fifth, respectively. Considering lactation stage in the seventh stage of fifth percentile, the highest decrease was 238 g milk reduction per day, for increase of 100 thousand somatic cells per ml/L of milk, and in the 95th percentile of the fourth stage, the lowest decrease was 64 grams milk reduction per day, for increase 100 thousand somatic cells per ml/L of milk. The results revealed that in high quantiles of daily milk yield, the impact of SCC on milk production decreases indicating that high-producing cows are less influenced in terms of loss of milk production as SCC increases. The difference in the amount of somatic cell count on the amount of milk production in cows with different production potential should be considered in the genetic evaluation of herds.