Somatic Cells in Milk-Physiological Aspects and Relationship to Amount and Composition of Milk

1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. H. SCHULTZ

Somatic cells in milk include epithelial cells from the gland and leukocytes from the blood. Epithelial cells are elevated in very early and late lactation. Leukocytes increase during mastitis infection or injury. They have phagocytic properties and combat invading organisms. Mean somatic cell counts of each milking over a 1-month period for cows with no udder infection, non-pathogens, or pathogens, were 169,500, 225,800, and 997,800 cells per ml, with coeffecients of variation of 94, 66, and 82%. Advanced age, late lactation, and a previous history of mastitis are related to elevated cells. Milk loss in subclinical mastitis is related to somatic cell counts. On a quarter basis, loss started at 500,000 cells per ml, progressed to 7.5% at 1 million, and 30% at 5 million. In cell counting programs associated with monthly testing of individual cows, those cows with two cell counts over 1 million cells per ml produced over 1,000 pounds of milk per lactation less than other cows in the same lactation whose cell count never exceeded 500,000 per ml. Use of cell counting on an individual cow basis improves its usefulness as a management tool for the dairyman compared to bulk tank counts. Literature data suggest the following changes in the milk composition from quarters definitely positive to mastitis screening tests based on somatic cell counts compared to normal quarters (values represent percent of normal): total solids (92), lactose (85), fat (88), total protein (100), caseins (82), whey protein (162), chloride (161), sodium (136), potassium (91), pH (105), lipase activity (116), and acid degree value (183).

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Stanisław Winnicki ◽  
Zbigniew Sobek ◽  
Ryszard Kujawiak ◽  
Jerzy Jugowar ◽  
Anna Nienartowicz-Zdrojewska ◽  
...  

Abstract. A study was conducted on the effect of separated manure as bedding material on milk quality as manifested in the somatic cell count. Cows were maintained in a loose barn in cubicles bedded with fresh separated cattle manure (SCM) with 40 % solids content. Analyses were conducted on 242 primiparous Polish Black and White Holstein-Friesian cows in the course of a 305-day lactation. Mean milk yield in that period amounted to over 9000 kg per cow. Somatic cell counts, daily milk yields and chemical composition of milk were analysed. Data were obtained from analyses of 2324 milk samples. It was found that 93.3 % of samples contained less than 400 000 somatic cells per 1 mL milk. Approximately 4.3 % of milk samples contained the number of somatic cells indicating subclinical mastitis (200 000 cells mL−1), while in 2.4 % it was clinical mastitis (> 800 000 cells mL−1). The incidence rate for both forms of mastitis was similar in the beginning and at the end of lactation. Mean daily milk yield of cows producing milk classified according to quality (SCC) grades 1 (< 25 000 cells mL−1) and 2 (< 25 000; 50 000 > cells mL−1) was statistically significantly greater than the yields of other cows. For analysed milk constituents a relationship was found between SCC classes and contents of milk fat and solids. Conducted analyses showed that SCM as bedding in cow cubicles had no effect on somatic cell counts in milk of primiparous cows. The study was conducted in a single holding, in one lactation, on cows calving in 2014.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 268
Author(s):  
Daphne T. Lianou ◽  
Charalambia K. Michael ◽  
Natalia G. C. Vasileiou ◽  
Efthymia Petinaki ◽  
Peter J. Cripps ◽  
...  

Objectives were to investigate somatic cell counts (SCC) and total bacterial counts (TBC) in the raw bulk-tank milk of sheep flocks in Greece, to study factors potentially influencing increased SCC and TBC in the bulk-tank milk of sheep and to evaluate possible associations of SCC and TBC with milk content. Throughout Greece, 325 dairy sheep flocks were visited for collection of milk sampling for somatic cell counting, microbiological examination and composition measurement. Geometric mean SCC were 0.488 × 106 cells mL−1; geometric mean TBC were 398 × 103 cfu mL−1; 228 staphylococcal isolates were recovered form 206 flocks (63.4%). Multivariable analyses revealed annual incidence risk of clinical mastitis, age of the farmer and month into lactation period (among 53 variables) to be significant for SCC > 1.0 × 106 cells mL−1 and month into lactation period at sampling and availability of mechanical ventilators (among 58 variables) to be significant for TBC > 1500 × 103 cfu mL−1. Negative correlation of SCC with fat, total protein and lactose and positive correlation of SCC with added water were found. With SCC > 1.0 × 106 cells mL−1, significant reduction of protein content (2%) was observed, whilst in flocks with SCC > 1.5 × 106 cells mL−1, significantly lower annual milk production per ewe (42.9%) was recorded.


Author(s):  
T. Kudinha ◽  
C. Simango

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of coagulase-negative staphylococci in clinical and subclinical mastitis in commercial and small-scale farms in Zimbabwe. Thirty five quarter milk samples from clinical mastitis cases and 371 quarter milk samples from cows with subclinical mastitis were cultured for bacterial pathogens. The most frequent pathogens isolated in clinical mastitis were the enteric bacteria (31.4 %), followed by coagulase negative staphylococci (22.9 %) and then Staphylococcus aureus (17.1 %), whereas in subclinical mastitis S. aureus (34.2 %) and coagulase-negative staphylococci were (33.2 %) the most common. Bacillus species were only isolated in milk samples from subclinical mastitis. Coagulase-negative staphylococci were observed in mixed infections with other bacteria in only 2.2 % of the 406 milk samples from clinical and subclinical mastitis where they were isolated together with Bacillus species in 6 of the 9 mixed infection cases. About 95 % of the milk samples from which 131 coagulase-negative staphylococci were isolated had correspondingly high somatic cell counts. The coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated most frequently were S. chromogenes (7.9 %), S. epidermidis (7.4 %) and S. hominis (5.9 %). They were all associated with high somatic cell counts. All the coagulase-negative staphylococci isolates were susceptible to cloxacillin and erythromycin, and more than 90 %of the isolates were susceptible to neomycin, penicillin and streptomycin. The highest resistance was to tetracycline (17.6 %), followed by lincomycin (13.7 %). About 8 % of the isolates were resistant to both penicillin and streptomycin.


1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 671-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. WANG ◽  
G. H. RICHARDSON

Milk sample preparation for Optical Somatic Cell Counter II operation was simplified by using a diluter to add fixative, mix, and dilute samples. Potassium dichromate preservative tablets produced a mean increase of 7,000 in somatic cell counts in fresh milk. Samples held at 20–23 C beyond 2 days or at 4–7 C beyond 4 days showed a reduction in somatic cell count. The mean somatic cells in 3 Holstein herds tested over a 6-month period was 3.8 × 105/ml. A 22-month survey of 52.6 thousand Utah Dairy Herd Improvement samples which were shipped under ambient conditions and then held at 5 C until tested, indicated 75% below 400,000 and 2.7% above 1.6 million somatic cells/ml. Casein, noncasein protein, total protein, fat and milk weight data were also obtained on the three herds. Multiple correlations were obtained. The best correlations suggested that testing for total protein and somatic cells in a central laboratory would estimate casein and noncasein protein. Such tests are most valuable for the cheese industry.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazira Mammadova ◽  
İsmail Keskin

This study presented a potentially useful alternative approach to ascertain the presence of subclinical and clinical mastitis in dairy cows using support vector machine (SVM) techniques. The proposed method detected mastitis in a cross-sectional representative sample of Holstein dairy cattle milked using an automatic milking system. The study used such suspected indicators of mastitis as lactation rank, milk yield, electrical conductivity, average milking duration, and control season as input data. The output variable was somatic cell counts obtained from milk samples collected monthly throughout the 15 months of the control period. Cattle were judged to be healthy or infected based on those somatic cell counts. This study undertook a detailed scrutiny of the SVM methodology, constructing and examining a model which showed 89% sensitivity, 92% specificity, and 50% error in mastitis detection.


1971 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 470-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilbert E. Ward ◽  
David T. Berman

Agitation of milk in bulk tanks for at least 1 min is necessary so that representative samples for somatic cell counts can be obtained.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeliki I. Katsafadou ◽  
Natalia G.C. Vasileiou ◽  
George T. Tsangaris ◽  
Katerina S. Ioannidi ◽  
Athanasios K. Anagnostopoulos ◽  
...  

: Aims: The importance of cathelicidin-1 as an indicator of the severity of mammary infection in ewes. Background: Mastitis is an important disease of sheep, affecting their health and welfare. Objective: The association of the presence of cathelicidin-1 in milk samples from ewes with mastitis with the severity of the infection. Methods: Ewes were intramammarily inoculated with Mannheimia haemolytica or Staphylococcus chromogenes. Conventional (clinical, bacteriological and cytological examinations; milk yield measurements) and proteomics evaluation (2-DE, MALDI-TOF MS) to record cathelicidin-1 spot optical densities in milk samples were recorded. Results: Ewes challenged with M. haemolytica developed clinical and ewes challenged with S. chromogenes subclinical mastitis (P=0.05). The challenge organism was isolated from milk samples from inoculated mammary glands; increased somatic cell counts were also recorded. Cathelicidin-1 was detected in milk samples from the inoculated side of udders of all ewes. Mean spot density of cathelicidin-1 from samples from inoculated glands of ewes challenged with M. haemolytica was higher than from ewes challenged with S. chromogenes: 2896 ± 973 versus 1312 ± 361 (P =0.034). There were significant correlations between the presence of clinical mastitis / somatic cell counts with the spot density of cathelicidin-1 on 2-DE gels (P=0.043 and P=0.023, respectively). There was also a significant inverse correlation between the mean spot densities of cathelicidin-1 in milk samples and the milk yield of respective ewes on D10 (P =0.031). Conclusion: Potentially, cathelicidin-1 could be used as a marker to indicate the severity of damage to the mammary parenchyma.


Author(s):  
Nazira M. Mammadova ◽  
Ismail Keskin

Mastitis is an important problem, while I guess AI is a possible solution to detect subclinical mastitis in Holstein cows milked with automatic milking systems. Mastitis alerts were generated via ANN and ANFIS model with the input data of lactation rank (current lactation number), milk yield, electrical conductivity, average milking duration and season. The output variable was somatic cell counts obtained from milk samples collected monthly throughout the 15 months of the sampling period. Cattle were judged healthy or infected based on somatic cell counts. This study undertook a detailed scrutiny of ANN, and ANFIS AI methodology; constructed and examined models for each; and chose optimal methods based on that examination. The two mastitis detection models were evaluated as to sensitivity, specificity and error rate. The ANN model yielded 80% sensitivity, 91% specificity, and 64% error and the ANFIS, 55%, 91% and 35%. These results suggest the ANN model is better predictor of subclinical mastitis than ANN based on Z-test (the hypothesis control for the difference between rates). AI models such as these are useful tools in the development of mastitis detection models. Prediction error rates can be decreased through the use of more informative parameters.


Author(s):  
D N Logue ◽  
J Gunn ◽  
D Fenlon

The recent introduction of penalties and premiums for bulk tank somatic cell counts (BTSCC) following the EC Directive of 5th August 1985 (no L 226/13) and subsequent EC Regulation of the 5th February 1990 (no COM(89)667) has reinforced the need for a greater awareness of the factors involved in herds with high BTSCC figures and their rapid identification. In the past a number of surveys have been conducted examining the major causes of mastitis in a cross section of the national herd (Wilson & Richards 1980) and these have demonstrated the importance of subclinical mastitis and in particular the so-called ‘cow-side organisms’, however more recently the impact of acute environmental mastitis has been of greater concern (Wilesmith Francis & Wilson 1986). Thus a reappraisal of priorities has become necessary, not least because these E C Regulations allow the sale of unpasteurised milk and milk products.


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