Study on some factors influencing the milk somatic cell count in Romanian black and white cows

Studies were carried out on 36 Romanian Black and White cows, from Didactical Farm Timisoara that calved in autumn 2002 (September, October, and November) and winter 2002/2003 (December, January, and February) and finished a normal lactation by the-end Of year 2003, in order to evaluate the effects of parity, season of calving and stage of lactation on somatic cell count in milk. Also, the correlations between SCC and milk components were calculated. SCC was expressed as logarithmic SCC (LSCC) and total SCC per day (TLSCC). All the three factors studied had a significant influence (p<0.001) on somatic cell count of milk. SCC increased with parity, except the primiparous cows that had a higher SCC in milk. Autumn-calved cows had a significantly higher SCC than winter-calved cows. The SCC was high at the beginning of lactation, decreasing in mid-lactation and then increasing again until the end of lactation. SCC in milk was positively low correlated with dry matter content of the milk and milk fat and protein percentages (r ranging from 0.11 to 0.16). TLSCC was medium correlated with daily milk yield (r=0.45).