Vol. 12, Special Issue 7 (2023)

Author(s):
Aprajita Johri, Niddhi Arora, Maansi and Meena Mrigesh

Abstract:
Mastitis, especially subclinical mastitis is a major issue for milk producing countries like India due to difficulty in its early detection. An array of causative agents are encountered but the most common ones are Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus uberis, Escherichia coli and Mycoplasma species. The infectious nature of mastitis causing pathogens requires early screening of milk samples. California mastitis test (CMT) is an indirect, on- farm test for this purpose which is constantly being used by many dairy agencies. Subclinical cases are hard to detect as there is no visible systemic sign in udder. The only inspection of subclinical case can be made by fall in milk production. Milk samples from 44 lactating buffaloes were collected and subjected to CMT for screening. It was found that 74 (61.67%%) quarter samples were negative for CMT and 46 (38.33%) quarter samples were positive for CMT. Among the positive quarter milk samples, the highest incidence was recorded in CMT score (++) as 24 (52.17%) and the lowest in CMT score (+++) as 11 (17.39%). The CMT score is based on the number of leukocytes in milk. The positive reaction of CMT represents alkalinity owing to rise of inflammatory cells (SCC).