Studies on the role of “Negretti’s Antiformin Test” in the diagnosis of bovine mastitis

Abstract

In 1958 and 1959 Negretti prepared a reagent wich he denominated: antiformin reagent. He found it to be superior to Whiteside’s in diagnosing bovine mastitis. He made, however, a wrong choice of ingredients to obtain the antiformin, with a different final result. Nevertheless the favourable results obtained by Negretti are attested, by several authors. The present paper makes a comparative study of this reagent and its pratical results. Field and laboratory tests were conducted, with 10 reagents: CMT, Whiteside’s, Negretti’s and several variations of them. In addition Hotis test was included totalizing 21 tests per sample of milk. The results of 164 samples of milk, obtained from 43  cows, statistically analyzed indicate that the higher degree of sensitivity of Negretti’s reagent is in direct relation to its higher concentration of sodium hydroxide (7.5%) .