Somatic cells of sheep and goat milks : analytical, sanitary, productive and technological aspects

Somatic cell count (SCC) in ewe and goat milk has proven to be a reliable tool in mastitis diagnosis and control. Accuracy of milk SCC is very important to the dairy industry and quality control tests are essential for guaranteeing the reproducibility and accuracy of SCC results and standardizing SCC equipment. Bacterial infection of mammary gland is the most important cause of variation of SCC. Other factors (flock, stage of lactation, parity, type of birth, virus infection, etc.) also induce significant variations in SCC, though generally of less importance than infection. From test-day records, milk yield losses vary from 2.6 to 20.5% according to organism group, uni- or bilateral character, and duration of infection. Complete and selective dry therapies are efficient and comparable methods of reducing intramammary infection prevalence and increasing milk yield. From a technological point of view, high SCC were related to significant effects on pH and formagraphic parameters. Cheese yields do not seem to be significantly influenced by SCC, though high SCC would cause increased lipolytic activity and an adverse effect on cheese flavour.