Effect of pathogen udder bacteria species on the somatic cell count of goat milk

SUMMARY Aim of this research was to evaluate the relationship between somatic cell count and prevalence of mastitis pathogens in goat milk. The milk samples were taken four times during the lactation from Alpine goats (n = 38) on a commercial dairy farm. Animals were divided to four groups by the type (minor or major) and prevalence of the udder pathogen bacteria: 1 – minor pathogen bacteria spe cies appeared once or negative; 2 – minor pathogen bacteria species appeared two or three times; 3 – minor pathogen bacteria species appeared at each (four) time; 4 – major pathogen bacteria species appeared at any case. It can be stated that pathogen udder bacteria species have been found in 67% of the milk samples. Higher somatic cell count was found at milk samples which were infected by pathogen bacteria than the negative samples (5.50 log cell/ ml vs. 5.71 log cell/ml; p < 0.05). The somatic cell count of milk samples infected by Corynebacterium sp. was higher than the somatic cell count of coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) infected samples (5.90 log cell/ml vs. 5.63 log cell/ ml; p < 0.05). Any appearance of major pathogen bacteria species during the lac tation increased significantly the somatic cell count in the goat milk. Based on the results one can tell that we can reach the expected low level of somatic cell count in case of taking one or more negative milk samples on pathogen bacteria species during the lactation