Method and apparatus for detecting mastitis by using visual light and/or near infrared lights

A method for diagnosing whether a cow which is unknown to suffer from mastitis (hereinafter referred to as “unknown cow”) suffers from mastitis or not, comprising the steps of:

• irradiating visible light rays and/or near infrared rays in a wavelength range of 400 to 2500 nm into urine or a mammary gland of each of known healthy cows and known mastitic cows, detecting intensities of transmitted light rays, reflected light rays or transmitted and reflected light rays from said urine or mammary gland, determining the number of somatic cells for each of said known healthy and mastitic cows, and building up a model enabling an inverse calculation of the numbers of the somatic cells in the raw milk from the near infrared spectra by a multivariate regression analysis by using said detected intensities of the light rays and said detected numbers of the somatic cells;
• irradiating visual light rays and/or near infrared rays in a wavelength range of 400 to 2500 nm into urine or a mammary gland of said unknown cow, detecting intensities of transmitted light rays, reflected light rays or transmitted and reflected light rays from said urine or mammary gland;
• determining the number of the somatic cells for an unknown cow based on said detected intensities of the light rays for the unknown cow and said inverse calculation model;
• and
• determining whether the unknown cow suffers from mastitis or not, based on the determined number of the somatic cells.