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Mastitis is the most common production disease in the dairy sector worldwide, its incidence being associated with both cows' exposure to bacteria and the cows' genetic make-up for resistance to pathogens. The objective of our study was to analyse 89 missense SNPs belonging to six genes ( CXCR2, CXCL8, TLR4, BRCA1, LTF, BOLA-DRB3 ), which were found to be associated with genetic resistance or susceptibility to mastitis. A total of 298 cattle (250 Romanian Spotted and 48 Romanian Brown) were genotyped by Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) and a chi-squared test was used for genetic association studies with clinical mastitis. A total of 35 SNPs (39.3%) among the selected 89 SNPs were successfully genotyped, of which 31 markers were monomorphic. The polymorphic markers were found in two genes: TLR4 (rs460053411) and BOLA-DRB3 (rs42309897, rs208816121, rs110124025). The polymorphic SNPs with MAF > 5% and call rates > 95% were used for the association study. The results showed that rs110124025 in the BOLA-DRB3 gene was significantly associated with mastitis prevalence ( p ≤ 0.05) in both investigated breeds. Current results show that the SNP rs110124025 in the BOLA-DRB3 gene can be used as a candidate genetic marker in selection for mastitis resistance in Romanian dairy cattle.

The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the effects that milking temperament (MT) of water buffaloes has on milking traits, welfare indicators, and reproductive outputs. The study was performed on 60 multiparous buffalo cows (6.7 ± 0.6 lactations) at the beginning of their lactation (100 days in milk, DIM). Each buffalo cow was scored by two independent observers using a temperament scoring system (1: extremely calm, 2: calm, 3: alert, 4: reactive, and 5: aggressive), and then grouped as 'calm' (scores 1, 2, and 3; n = 42) or 'nervous' (scores 4 and 5; n = 18). Additionally, the milk yield at 100 DIM (MY), milking speed (MS), calving interval (CI), age at first calving (AFC), body condition score (BCS), animal-based welfare parameters, and infrared thermography data (IRT) were evaluated. The MT significantly influenced the MY ( p = 0.0082), with calmer cows outperforming their nervous counterparts. The MS was significantly influenced by the MT ( p = 0.0015), with calmer animals having a higher milk ejection rate. The MT of the cows had no influence on the CI, AFC, or BCS. The evidence from this study suggests that the responsiveness of buffalo cows during milking affects their milk yield and milking speed, with no associations being found for reproduction efficiency indicators or animal-based welfare indicators.