Biochemical profile of milk secretion, including acute phase proteins and enzymes NAGase and LDH, as a method of diagnosis and prognosis of subclinical and clinical mastitis in female cattle and buffalo

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the biochemical profile of whey, including concentrations of acute phase proteins (AFP’s) and immunoglobulins in healthy female cattle and buffalo and in female cattle and buffalo with subclinical and clinical mastitis, in order to compare the differences between the two species. Also aims to evaluate, in the whey, the use of AFP´s haptoglobin and serum amyloid A (SAA) and the enzymes N-acetyl-²-D-glucosaminidase (NAGase) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) for the detection of subclinical mastitis and for monitoring female buffalo and cattle after detection and treatment of clinical mastitis. Additionally, aims to establish a reference value for somatic cell count (SCC) in milk samples from healthy female buffalo and analyze the efficiency of CMT to detect subclinical mastitis in this species. Samples will be collected monthly during a complete lactation (270 days). Physical examination of the mammary gland, as well as black sieve cloth test and California Mastitis Test (CMT) will be performed before sampling. After asepsis of the teats, samples of 50 ml of milk from each quarter will be collected into sterilized jars for microbiological isolation, for the analysis of serum biochemical profile, including protein fractionation on SDS-PAGE, and for measurement of enzyme activities NAGase and LDH and the AFP´s and immunoglobulin by ELISA. Samples of 50 mL of milk from each mammary quarter will also be collected in sterile plastic vials containing preservative suitable for the somatic cell count (SCC), which will be performed in infrared electronic counter. The variables will be subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s test (p <0.05) for comparison between pairs of means at 5% level of significance. Chi-square test will be performed to verify the dependence between variables. Also, the correlation coefficient (r) will be calculated to check the degree of dependence between variables. (AU)