RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LACTOFERRINCONCENTRATION, MILK PRODUCTION, MASTITIS,SCC ANDCONTAGIOUS BACTERIAL PATHOGENS

During the period from 2012 to 2014, total of 794 normal lactationrecords of Friesian cows were raised on El-Karada Animal ProductionResearch Station, Animal Production Research Institute (APRI), Ministry ofAgriculture situated at Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt. The initial numbers ofnormal lactation records included were 49 Friesian cows to estimate effect ofsomatic cell counts (SCC) and lactoferrin concentration (LFC) levels on traitsstudied, total milk yield (TMY), mastitis (MAST) and bacterial counts ofStaphylococcus sp (Staph) ,Streptococcus sp (Strep), Escherichia coli (E.
coli) and Bacillus sp (Baci), effect of mastitic and nonmastitic cases on sametraits, determine the effect of using Lf and EEP (Ethanol extract of propolis) asa natural antibiotic either alone or mixing with certain industrial antibiotics on
udder health and bacterial counts. Data were analyzed using SAS, (2004).Unadjusted means of TMY, SCC, and LFC were 3557.5Kg, 463.4x103cells/mland 308.6μg/ml and bacterial count of Staph, Strep, E.coli and Baci were512.2, 529.1, 250.6 and 254.3x103cell/ml, respectively. SCC levels did nothave any effect on TMY till 200 x103 cell/ml of milk, then milk yield beginningslightly decrease till 1000 x103 cell/ml of milk ratio of incidence clinicalmastitis, LFC, Staph, Strep, E. coli and Baci, the same trend with SCC whichdecrease with the lower levels of SCC and increase with higher levels of SCC,thus, an increase in the SCC in milk is an indicator of inflammation in the udder.With decreasing milk yield,ratio of incidence clinical mastitis, SCC,Staph, Strep, E. coli, Baci andLFC in milk increases, estimates decreasedSCC, different bacterial counts investigation (Staph, Strep, E.coli and Baci)and MAST in all groups treatments comparison control group, and decreasingin average of SCC, Staph, Strep, E.coli and Baci were clear approximately,
the highest decline rate between zero time and after 8h in all groups, thehighest drop in SCC, four type bacteria (Staph, Strep, E.coli and Baci) atdifferent time and MAST in (T6) compare with all other treatments. Correlationbetween TMY and udder health traits (SCC, MAST, LFC, Staph, Strep, E.coliand Baci) were low and negative ranged from (-0.23 to -0.07). While theorrelation among udder health traits had positive ranged from (0.27 to 0.88),the estimate of correlation among LFC, SCC and MAST had strong rangedfrom (0.79 to 0.88) and the correlation among Staph, Strep, E.coli and Baci
were positive ranged from (0.27 to 0.55). Lf could be used as a complementarytest to SCC and possibly a diagnostic test of subclinical mastitis in dairy cattleand used Lf combination with gentamicin to treat mastitis more efficiently fromused alone.