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Short milking tube thermogram analysis: an indicator of mastitis in Murrah buffaloes

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Abstract

In the present study, thermal images of the short milking tube of the milking machine representing four udder quarters independently attached to a milking animal, along with pre-milking and post-milking udder and teat thermograms, were taken using a hand-held digital infrared thermal camera (DarviDTL007) during morning milking of lactating Murrah buffaloes (n = 132) to assess the mastitis status. California mastitis test (CMT) and somatic cell count (SCC) of milk samples were carried out to screen the udder quarters as healthy, subclinical (SCM), and clinical mastitis (CM). The thermograms revealed an increase (p < 0.05) of 2.19 and 3.72ºC in the mean values of short milking tube (SMT) surface temperature among SCM and CM quarters compared to healthy quarters, respectively. The mean values of udder skin surface temperature (USST) for pre-milking, milking, and post-milking of SCM and CM compared to healthy quarters showed an increase (p < 0.05) of 2.17, 1.96, and 1.61ºC and 3.11, 2.88, and 2.73ºC, respectively. Similarly, compared to healthy quarters, the mean values of teat skin surface temperature (TSST) for pre-milking and post-milking of SCM and CM showed an increase (p < 0.05) of 2.12 and 1.66ºC and 3.07 and 2.45ºC, respectively. Also, CMT and SCC results showed a strong positive correlation (r = 0.68–0.91, p < 0.01) with all the thermographic parameters. Thus, thermograms of SMT alone can be used as an efficient detection tool in assessing SCM among Murrah buffaloes.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

SCC:

Somatic cell count

CMT:

California mastitis test

IRT:

Infrared thermography

SCM:

Subclinical mastitis

CM:

Clinical mastitis

THI:

Temperature–humidity index

IMI:

Intra-mammary infection

EBST:

Eyeball surface temperature

USST:

Udder Skin Surface temperature

TSST:

Teat skin surface temperature

SMT:

Short milking tube

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristics

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the director, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, Haryana, India for providing all the necessary facilities to conduct the study.

Funding

The “ICAR-Network Programme on Precision Agriculture (NePPA)” project (ICT unit-3(5)/2021-ICT) funded the research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Breeding Research Centre, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, 132001, Haryana, India

    S. L. Gayathri, M. Bhakat & T. K. Mohanty

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  1. S. L. Gayathri
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Contributions

M.B. and T.K.M. designed the project. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by G.S.L. (part of the PhD research work submitted to ICAR- NDRI, Karnal, India, 2023). The first draft of the manuscript was written by G.S.L., and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to M. Bhakat.

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All the experimental procedures and the study protocol have been approved by the ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute Ethics Committee, ICAR-NDRI, Karnal, Haryana, India and the experiment was performed by the internationally accepted standard ethical guidelines for animal use and care.

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Dr. M. Bhakat, Principal Scientist and Head, Animal Physiology and Reproduction Division, ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Farah-281122, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India.

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Gayathri, S.L., Bhakat, M. & Mohanty, T.K. Short milking tube thermogram analysis: an indicator of mastitis in Murrah buffaloes. Trop Anim Health Prod 56, 5 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03853-4

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