Impact of different search strategies on the results of a meta-analysis for mastitis in dairy cattle

Abstract Poorly formulated search strategies can have great influences on the results of a meta-analysis, since it directly impacts the amount and adherence to the theme of the works used for study, therefore, the formulation of a consistent and functional search strategy is essential for the review system to achieve its goals. The objective of this work was to study the impact of different search strategies in a systematic review by performing a meta-analysis to estimate heritability for the mastitis trait in dairy cattle. Once the search strategies were defined, the searches carried out in the Web of science, Scopus, Scielo and Pubmed databases returned 921 studies from which, after going through the identification, selection, eligibility and inclusion processes, 25 studies were selected. Withdrawals from selected articles, 26 heritability estimates were used in the meta-analysis. A random effect model was used, with all analyzes performed by the R program, through the Metafor package. The estimates obtained through the combined statistics of studies for mastitis, presented values of low magnitude (0.05 and 0.06). The effects of search strategies have a significant impact on the meta-analysis estimates produced.