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1 Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium
2 Coordination Centre for Veterinary Diagnostics, Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre, Brussels, Belgium
3 Department of Health Management, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada
Corresponding author: S. De Vliegher; e-mail: Sarne.Devliegher{at}UGent.be.
Associations between somatic cell counts (SCC) from heifers between 5 and 14 d in milk (DIM) and both herd-management practices and heifer characteristics were studied for 1912 heifers in 159 dairy herds in Flanders (Belgium). In higher-producing herds and in herds with an average calving age of heifers >27 mo, SCC of heifers was lower than in less-producing herds or in herds with an average calving age 
27 mo. Heifers raised in herds with a higher bulk-milk somatic cell count had higher SCC. In herds in which heifers calved on slatted floors, heifers had lower SCC compared with herds in which heifers calved on nonslatted floors. A significant difference in SCC was observed between provinces. At the heifer level, SCC decreased with increasing DIM. On average, heifers calving in April to June had higher SCC, compared with those calving in the other months of the year.
In the multilevel regression models, nearly all the variations of SCC resided at the heifer level, indicating that preventive measures against udder health problems in freshening dairy heifers should, in the short term, focus more on factors that vary between heifers than on factors that vary between herds. However, for the long term, the need to identify new, and to implement known, herd-level strategies is important.
Key Words: dairy heifer • multilevel • risk factor • somatic cell count
Abbreviation key: BMSCC = bulk milk SCC, HSCC = herd geometric mean SCC, LnSCC = log-transformed SCC
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