Abstract

Mastitis is the most complex and costly disease of dairy cows occurring throughout the world. In Algeria, the disease is not well investigated. A cross-sectional study to elucidate its magnitude, distribution, bacterial causes, and to investigate the reliability of a test for early diagnosis of mastitis in cattle in Blida and Ain Defla governorates, central region of Algeria, was carried out from May to December 2011 in a total of 108 milking cows using California mastitis test, clinical inspection of udder and bacteriological analysis. After conducting california mastitis test (CMT) in farms, quarter-based milk samples were collected from 108 cows. Also, 50 positive samples with CMT were collected for bacterial culture. Based on CMT, 29.20% of quarters and 29.62% of cows had subclinical mastitis; the sensitivity of CMT to infections with all bacteria was 96%. Staphylococcus aureuswere the most common pathogens (40%). Based on the results of the current study, CMT has very acceptable sensitivity in diagnosis.

Key words: Bacteriology, CMT, milk, sensitivity, subclinical mastitis