ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2015, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (9): 1663-1670.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2015.09.024

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Study on Possibility of Left and Right Quarter Skin Temperature Difference as a Detecting Indicator for Subclinical Mastitis in Dairy Cows

YANG Chun-he1,GU Xian-hong1* ,CAO Zheng-hui2,ZHANG Xiao-jun2,HAO Yue1,LIU Yun-xiang3,SHEN Lei3,ZHANG Yu-tao3   

  1. (1.State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition,Institute of Animal Science,Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Beijing 100193,China;2.Henan University of Science and Technology,Luoyang 471000,China;3.Beijing Zhongdi Livestock Technology Co.,Ltd,Beijing 100193,China)
  • Received:2014-12-15 Online:2015-09-23 Published:2015-09-23

Abstract:

This study was conducted to determine variation of left and right quarter skin temperature and their temperature difference in order to evaluate the possibility of temperature difference of left and right quarter as indicator of subclinical mastitis detection by determination of left and right quarter skin temperature difference range.Thermal images of rear left and rear right quarters of 587 Chinese Holstein dairy cows were collected by infrared thermograph technology(IRT).The cows were chosen randomly.The udder skin temperature was calculated using image analysis software.The result demonstrated that rear left and rear right quarter skin temperature were characteristic of normal distribution.The variation of rear left and rear right quarter skin temperature were (35.57±1.31)℃ and (35.51±1.34)℃ respectively.Their difference was not significant(P>0.05) and was distributed symmetrically.Mean somatic cell count(SCC) in milk had the rising trend as left and right quarter temperature difference increasing.Mean milk SCC was(298 ± 110)×103 mL-1 when rear left and rear right quarter skin surface temperature difference was above 1.5 ℃ and left and right quarter skin temperature was significantly different(P<0.05).This study showed that subclinical mastitis could be detected initially when skin temperature difference between left and right quarters was over 1.5 ℃ and SCC was above 3×105 mL-1 for the detection of subclinical mastitis.

CLC Number: