The influence of laterality on mastitis incidence in dairy cattle--preliminary study

During summer (June to August) of continental weather conditions treated mastitis episodes at a large Hungarian dairy farm were studied to determine the relationship between the distribution of mastitis among quarters of the udder and the lying behaviour (laterality) of the cows. There was a significant difference in laterality between cows that developed mastitis and cows that did not. Cows that developed mastitis, had an increased left laterality in lying, which was related to the increased probability of a right-sided mastitis episode. However, the effect was not significant due to the large variation in the data. At the same time, significantly more cows with clinical mastitis had a somatic cell count (SCC) higher than that of cows without clinical mastitis. While a significant correlation was found between the occurrence of treated mastitis cases and SCC > 1,000,000, no statistically significant differences could be observed in milk production between the two groups.