Teat End Condition Changes Induced by Different Shaped Liner in OneTypical Sicilian Dairy Herd

摘要

The teat orifice is the primary barrier to invasion of patogens into the udder. Teat-End Condition (TEC) is a good index to evaluate the condition of teat skin and tissues surrounding the teat canal. The TEC can be influenced by various factors: genetic, weather, teat prep procedures and system settings. The milking machine and in particular the liner's cross-sectional barrel shape (round, triangle, square, and tri-circle) can influence TEC (Mein et al., 2003). This study was performed to evaluate TEC changes by following use of round-shaped liner with vented triangular-liner in one dairy farm in Ragusa province, located in the South-eastern Sicily.