294. Optoelectronic and photonic sensors of mastitis in cow milk

Fig. 1 Liquid conductometer with capillary head.

(a) Conductometric examination and (b) transmitted signal of halogen lamp of acid whey for a specified original milk sample.

Fig. 3 Resistivity and light transmission of acid whey as a function of somatic cells counts.

M. Borecki, et al, Proc. of SPIE 8902, 890213 (2013)
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2030301

(1) Mastitis is the inflammation of the mammary gland in animals under the influence of micro-organisms causingfunctional disorder of udder.
(2) The significant increase in mastitis detection sensitivity is achieved by measuring the whey acidic instead of milk.
(3) The mastitis inflammation can be detected in field conditions by way of temperature sensing and by examination of the milk. Laboratory methods of detection include the estimation of somatic cell counts, measurement of biomarkers associated with the onset of the disease and identification of the causative microorganisms, which often involves culturing.
(4) The mastitis milk samples showed lower color values (lower level of scattered light, milk being darker) than milk from healthy cows.
(5) The electrical conductivity (EC) method is based on measurements of changes of ion concentrations in milk due to mastitis. However, the EC method is also affected by other factors than mastitis, such as temperature, the fat content of milk and milk fraction.
(6) The spectral examinations of liquids were made in standard single use cuvettes CVD-UV1S.
(7) The greatest disadvantage of milk transmission measurements was that sedimentation changes were not visible to the observer’s eyes, while sedimentation of acid whey was visible.
(8) Our experiments with resistance measurements and light transmission measurements proved that acid whey was more convenient for examination for mastitis than raw milk. The light transmission as well as resistance of acid whey showed a clear correlation with somatic cells counts (SCC).
(9) Removing proteins and fat from milk resulted in simpler and better diagnostic of mastitis in all presented methods.
(10) The most advanced method of capillary phase transition sensing with examination of the time of heating for gas phase creation gave the best dynamic range in mastitis sensing.