MILK AMYLOID A

Milk Amyloid A (MAA) is an Acute Phase Protein biomarker specific to clinical and subclinical mastitis. MAA has been extensively evaluated and is now considered a better alternative to existing methods for the early diagnosis of mastitis in Dairy Herd Improvement testing program.

Based on an ELISA method, the MAA kits are designed to determine the amount of Amyloid A in raw milk in order to make an early diagnosis of mastitis, thus preserving animal welfare, improving milk production and reducing the use of antibiotics.

Commonly used methods for the diagnosis of mastitis are somatic cell counts in milk or other types of bacteriological tests. However, these methods are not sufficiently effective for the diagnosis of mastitis:

• In some cases, there is no bacterial growth despite the presence of infections (Koivula et al, 2007; Riekerink et al, 2008).
• Negative results are common, especially if tests are done only once.
• Possible bacterial contamination during sampling.

In contrast to these methods, the MAA assay provides earlier and more certain screening for udder infections:
 

• MAA levels in healthy quarters are low or undetectable and increased rapidly in infected quarters of the same udder (Eckersall et al. 2001; Grönlund et al. 2003; Alsemgeest et al. 1994; Werling et al. 1996; Heegard et al. 2000; Hany Ahmed Hussein et al. 2018).
• MAA levels can rapidly increase even up to 1000-fold following experimentally induced udder infection with E. Coli (Suojala et al., 2008), S.Aureus (Grönlund et al., 2003), Strep. Uberis (Pedersen et al. 2003) and intra-udder infusion of endotoxin (LPS) derived from the cell wall of E.Coli (Lehtolainen et al., 2004)