MiRNAs in milk can be used towards early prediction of mammary gland inflammation in cattle

Considering the importance of early disease detection for reducing the huge financial and animal welfare impact of bovine mastitis globally, improved tools are urgently needed that can accurately detect early mammary inflammation. MiRNAs have demonstrated value as disease biomarkers, however, their potential for accurately detecting early mammary inflammation has not been examined in detail. To address this, we investigated the association between levels of four inflammation-associated miRNAs (bta-miR-26a, bta-miR-142-5p, bta-miR-146a and bta-miR-223) and CMT scores (0 to 3) obtained from a large number of individual quarter milk samples (n = 236) collected from dairy cows at different lactations (1 to 4). Initial analyses (n = 21 samples) confirmed that the levels of each of bta-miR-142-5p, bta-miR-146a and bta-miR-223 in whole milk were significantly correlated with mRNA levels of known inflammatory markers ( HP, TNF, CXCL8 and IL1B ) in milk cells (Rho ≥ 0.49, P