How do you diagnose sub-clinical mastitis in low producing dairy cows?

Abstract

A study to estimate a SCC (Somatic Cell Counts) threshold for differentiating between S. aureus positive and S. aureus negative cows in Central Kenya, was carried out using milk samples and production data collected monthly for one year from 210 lactating on 90 smallholder dairy farms. The SCC averaged 1.45 x 10. This resulted in a high threshold with a cut off of between 500,000 and 800,000 somatic cells/ml which was considered appropriate for low producing dairy cows in the tropics