Milk Somatic Cell Counts and Some Hemato-Biochemical Changes
in Sub-Clinical Mastitic Dromedary She-Camels (Camelus
dromedarius)
Farah Ali1*, Riaz Hussain1*,
Abdul Qayyum1,Shafia Tehseen Gul2,
Zahid Iqbal3 and
Mohammad Farooque Hassan4
1University
College of Veterinary and Animal Science, The Islamia University of
Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur-63100, Pakistan; 2Faculty of
Veterinary sciences, Department of Pathology, University of
Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan; 3Department of
Pharmacology, Al-Nafees Medical College, Isra University, Islamabad,
Pakistan *Corresponding authors: drfarahiub@gmail.com; driazhussain@yahoo.com
Abstract
The dromedary camels are considered as the best
livestock animals in arid, semiarid and desert areas and camel milk is known as
the valuable food source in these areas.
The present study was aimed to investigate milk somatic cell counts and some
biochemical changes in milk due to sub-clinical mastitis in camels.For this purpose milk samples were collected from 33 lactating animals
and examined for sub clinical mastitis using California Mastitis Test. The
chi-square and frequency analysis did not show any significant association with
age, lactation stage, parity and quarter involved. The results indicated
significant (P<0.01) increase in milk electrical conductivity and milk pH while
significantly lower values for milk proteins, lactose and fat contents were
recorded. The results revealed that the total milk somatic cell and neutrophil
counts were significantly increased while the lymphocytes and macrophages were
decreased in infected animals. Moreover, milk enzymes; aspartate
aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, and alkaline phosphatase were
significantly increased in mastitic animals as compared to the non-infected
animals. The results indicated that milk electrical conductivity and some milk
enzymes can be screened to investigate the sub-clinical mastitis in Camelus
dromedaries.