An Evaluation of Prevalence and Causes of Subclinical Mastitis and its Association with Somatic Cell Count in Azeri Buffaloes

The aim of this study is to determine the bacterial causative agents and prevalence of subclinical mastitis in buffaloes and quarters of Tabriz Azeri ecotype and assess relationships between intramammary infections (IMI) and Somatic Cell Counts (SCCs). Quarter- based milk samples were collected randomly from 300 buffaloes. After CMT in farms, the samples were sent to lab for somatic cell counts. Also 150 samples were collected for bacterial culture and counts.13.87% of quarters and 23.66% buffaloes had subclinical mastitis based on CMT, the sensitivity and specifity of CMT for infections with all bacteria and infections with major pathogens were 55% and 67.39%, 70% and 50% respectively. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were the most common pathogens. Isolated bacteria significantly had no effects on mean SCC of infected quarters based on ANOVA test. But SCC and total bacterial count (TBC) of infected quarters were significantly higher than intact ones (p<0.05) in T test. Based on results of current study prevalence of subclinical mastitis in Azeri ecotype is more like to Anatolian and Murrah buffaloes and CMT has acceptable sensitivity and specifity in diagnosis. The isolated bacteria from infected quarters are mostly as the same as dairy cattle but more probably coli forms are not very important in buffaloes subclinical mastitis.