Comprehensive genetic analysis and predictive evaluation of milk electrical conductivity for subclinical mastitis in Chinese Holstein cows

This study demonstrates that milk electrical conductivity is influenced by multiple factors, such as age at first calving, parity, and body condition score, and exhibits significant phenotypic associations with somatic cell score, milk yield, activity quantity, and milking speed. Although milk electrical conductivity showed moderate to high heritability and potential as a predictor for subclinical mastitis, its low genetic correlations with SCS limit its effectiveness as a standalone indicator. Future research should focus on combining EC with other indicators to improve the accuracy of mastitis detection.