A survey on the prevalence of teat end hyperkeratosis in dairy farms of Tabriz

Abstract

One of the most important defense mechanisms of the bovine mammary gland is teat sphincter and it’s keratinized and stratified squamous epithelium, which extends through the teat sphincter and after every milking secrets keratin and closes the capillary canal of the teat sphincter by keratin plaque. Over secretion of keratin due to repeated stimulations of teat end such as inappropriate performance of milking machine results in hyperkeratosis and finally leads to mastitis, black spot and increase in somatic cell counts. In this study 4 herds from dairy farms around Tabriz including 860 dairy cows were studied. Two herds were milked twice a day and the other herds were milked three times a day. At the time of milking the teat ends were investigated the presence of hyperkeratosis and graded into grades one to four. The results of this study indicated that the prevalence of teat end hyperkeratosis in herds which were milked three times a day (14/1%) was significantly more than the herds which were milked twice a day(%12/3) (p

Keywords

• Hyperkeratosis
• Teat end
• Dairy cow
• Milking machine