Descriptive Analysis of Somatic Cell Count Using Statistical Tools

• Published in: Lucrări științifice zootehnie şi biotehnologii Vol. 52; no. 2; p. 109
• Main Authors: Alina Cărunta, Mihai Chiș, Daniela Elena Ilie, Kristian Miok, Radu Moleriu, Raluca Mureșan, Claudia Zaharia, Daniela Zaharie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Agroprint Timisoara 01.09.2023
• Subjects: clustering; correlation analysis; mastitis; similarity measures; somatic cell count
• ISSN: 1841-9364; 1841-9364

Somatic cell count (SCC) can be used as an indicator of subclinical mastitis and its analysis in relation with the milk composition can provide useful information on the existence of some correlations or patterns. Based on milk production data recorded during 5 years (2012-2015, 2017) at the Research and Development Station for Bovine Arad we conducted a statistical analysis aiming to identify correlations between SCC and milk characteristics (protein and fat content, lactose, non-fat solids, milk quantity, pH, casein) and to find potential profiles of SCC evolution. The correlation analysis was based on 226 lactating cows for which at least 20 measurements were available. Both classical correlation coefficient (i.e. Pearson) and correlation coefficient for repeated measurements (i.e. Bland-Altman) have been computed. In both cases, a moderate negative correlation between SCC and the lactose level has been identified while no significant correlation between SCC and the other milk characteristics has been detected. However, a more accurate description of the relation between SCC and lactose was obtained using a linear mixed model. Aiming to analyse SCC profiles, an additional attribute has been added to the data based on the following encoding rule: the attribute has value 0 if SCC is smaller than 2x105 cells/ml, 1 if it is larger than 2x105 cells/mL and 2 if the value is missing. In this way, data vectors containing 13 values per year have been constructed for 175 cows and a dissimilarity matrix has been constructed as a first step for cluster analysis. Overall, the results have shown that lactose and SCC were negatively correlated.