The investigation on the relationship between dairy cow hygiene scores and intramammary infections

Abstract

The “cow hygiene score” system is a management tool for assessment of cow’s body hygiene and<br><br>cleaning of the barn. In this study, the correlation between body hygiene scores and intramammary<br><br>infections (IMI), California Mastitis Test (CMT) and Somatic Cell Count (SCC) were evaluated in<br><br>two different seasons. Hygiene scoring of 1096 dairy cows in 4 herds was performed on five body<br><br>areas including: udder, rear legs, flanks and upper legs, abdomen, and tail head. After doing CMT,<br><br>milk samples were taken from quarters with score 2 or more for microbiological culture. SCC data<br><br>were taken in two consecutive months. The results of this study showed no significant differences between the median of all hygiene scores except for tail head that were significantly greater in high