Using viscosity values for determining somatic cell count in cow milk.

摘要

The possibility of using viscosity values for determination of raw milk quality was investigated. Raw milk samples were collected from smallholder dairy farms in Turkey on 5 days in March-April 2010, and analysed for somatic cells using direct microscopy or viscometry. Results show that, despite the relatively lower somatic cell counts (SCC) recorded using viscometry, SCC obtained using the 2 methods were not significantly different. Furthermore, using data obtained by microscopy and viscometry it was found that 22.4 and 34.0% of the samples, respectively, had SCC lower than the legal SCC limit for human consumption in the EU (400 x 103 cells/ml). A high correlation (r = 0.783, P < 0.01) was found between SCC obtained using microscopy and viscosity. Thus, it is concluded that viscosity values may be used for assessing SCC or raw milk quality.