Estimating the amount of collagen and elastic fibres in bovine teats.

The amount of collagen and elastic fibres near the Fürstenberg's rosette in histological sections of bovine teats was estimated using the ImageJ image processing software. This method holds promise for comparing tissue types within and between sections but it was not a reliable way to quantify the absolute amount of tissue types in a sample. The amount of elastic fibres and collagen was similar in cow teats with a history or acute case of mastitis infection and in non-infected cows, but this could not be statistically tested due to limitations in the study material.