Physiological parameters to identify suitable blood donor cows for preparation of platelet rich plasma

Platelet rich plasma (PRP) has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of bovine mastitis, with an action comparable to that of antibiotics. Autologous treatment is feasible in experimental conditions but is difficult to apply in field conditions, particularly in acute mastitis. The ideal scenario would be to have heterologous PRP stored on every farm so that it is readily available when needed. In this paper, we analysed data collected during bovine mastitis treatment with heterologous PRP produced by casual donor cows on several farms. We tried to identify parameters which might be useful to identify the most suitable cows to be used as blood donors, to obtain the highest yield of PRP. Variables considered for each animal were the age, the parity, the date of the last parturition, the season of blood collection, the site of blood collection (jugular or mammary vein) and the reproductive status e.g., pregnant or not pregnant. There were statistically significant differences for all the variables considered from the 135 blood cows, except for the blood collection season. The highest yield of PRP was associated with nonpregnancy blood collection within three months of parturition, parity 3 or 4, and blood collection from the mammary vein.