The Impact of Breed, Parity, and Calving Season on Somatic Cell Score in Dairy Cattle | ||
| Assiut Journal of Agricultural Sciences | ||
| Volume 56, Issue 1, January 2025, Pages 78-87 PDF (448.65 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/ajas.2024.323369.1409 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Nisreen Othman* ; Mohamed S. M. Mousa; Jalal A. Abd El-Hafez; Ahmed M.A. Hussein | ||
| Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, 71515, Assiut, Egypt. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The current study aimed to investigate the impact of breed, parity, and calving season on somatic cell score (SCS) in dairy cattle. Data was collected from 3,333 lactating cows, including 810 pure Holstein cows and 2,523 crossbred cows (Holstein pure with European breeds). Milk samples were taken monthly during morning milking sessions across four seasons within the period from 2002 to 2017. A General Linear Model (GLM) was applied to assess the effects of these factors on SCS. The results indicated that SCS was significantly higher (P < 0.0001) in cows with higher parity and was high in crossbreds compared to Holsteins (P = 0.0460). However, there was no significant effect of calving season on SCS. Additionally, weak negative phenotypic correlations were observed between SCS and milk (-0.09379), fat (-0.06733), and protein (-0.07158) yields. Based on these findings, dairy farmers and researchers can consider parity as a key factor to improve milk quality, udder health, and overall productivity in dairy cattle operations. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Breed; Calving season; Parity; Phenotypic correlation; Somatic cell score | ||
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