The relationships between somatic cell count, total bacterial count and intramammary infection in milk samples of Damascus goats during postpartum days

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to examine the changes of somatic cell count (SCC), total bacterial count (TBC) and intramammary infection (IMI) from milk samples of Damascus goats in association with the early lactation period. A total of 291 milk samples from each of the udder halves (no milk could be obtained from 9 udder halves) belonging to 50 Damascus goats were collected on the 10th, 20th and 30th days postpartum (pp). Bacterial isolates were identified by using a VITEK 2 Compact automatized system and were confirmed with API strips. All collected samples were analysed for TBC by BactoScan FC and SCC by Fossomatic FC 5000. The most commonly isolated bacteria were coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) species (S. chromogenes S. simulans, S. xylosus, S. equorum and S. warneri) with percents of 8.24%, 11.34% and 9.27% according to pp days (10th, 20th and 30th day). S. aureus was isolated at the percents of 2.06%, 4.12% and 2.06% on 10th, 20th and 30thdays pp, respectively. The percent of SCC > 1 million/ml in milk samples of udder halves was 25.7% on the 10th day, the percent decreased to 13.4% on the 30th day of the puerperium (P   500.000 cfu/ml in milk samples of udder halves was 11.3% on the 10th day, the percent decreased to 1.03% on the 30th day of the puerperium (P   0.05). It is concluded that a significant decreases in both SCC and TBC in postpartum period may be an important parameter in terms of udder health.