Prognostic potential of pre-partum blood biochemical and immune variables for postpartum mastitis risk in dairy cows

Table 1 Basic information and lactation performance of dairy cows with low, middle, and high somatic cell counts (SCC)

Items	Groups¹			SEM	P-value²
Items	LSCC	MSCC	HSCC	SEM	Hs	Wk	Hs*Wk
Number of cows (head)	23	20	33	–	–	–	–
Parity	2.8	2.9	2.7	0.17	0.26	–	–
SCC (10³/mL)	77.6	346.0	1460.5	–	–	–	–
Milk yield (kg)	34.3^a	31.4^b	26.5^b	0.71	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.96
Milk composition (%)
Milk fat	4.85	5.07	4.88	0.11	0.36	< 0.01	0.53
Milk protein	3.24^b	3.26^b	3.35^a	0.03	0.02	< 0.01	0.48
Milk lactose	4.96^b	4.97^a	4.80^b	0.03	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.75
Total solids	13.2	13.4	13.2	0.12	0.36	< 0.01	0.72
Milk urea nitrogen (mgN/dL)	12.2^a	10.4^b	8.5^b	0.52	< 0.01	0.43	0.95

¹LSCC = cows with SCC (SCC < 200,000 cells ml^− 1, n = 23); MSCC = cows with middle SCC (200,000 cells ≤ SCC < 500,000 cells ml^− 1, n = 20); HSCC = cows with high SCC (SCC ≥ 500,000 cells ml^− 1, n = 33)
²Effect of health status (Hs), sampling week (Wk), and interaction of health status by sampling week (Hs × Wk)
^a,bMeans within the same row followed by different superscripts differ at P < 0.05

ISSN: 1746-6148