Environmental factors that affect milk somatic cell count in buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis)

Abstract

This study was performed in order to estimate the relation between some environmental factors and somatic cell count (SCC). This relation was verified by testing the frequency of analyzed samples in classes according to the SCC as follows: very high, high, medium and low. 23,534 milk samples corresponding to 2.198 lactations of Murrah breed animals were used. The buffaloes were between 2 and 15 years old and were daughters of 187 males. The samples were taken during a period of 7 years. In general, the results showed that SCC was low, medium, high and very high for 96.34%, 2.3%, 0.96% and 0.4% for the samples, respectively. Low and medium SCC had the highest frequencies, pointing out that in buffaloes there is a tendency of lower SCC when compared to bovines. There were differences between the average SCC according to the order and season of parturition. There were also significant differences between the average SCC of some control samples (P<0.05). In relation to order of parturition there were observed differences between SCC frequencies, but as a general statement it was observed that as order of parturition was higher the rate of lower SCC decreased and the frequency of medium, high and very high SCC increased. The results indicated that the effects of farm, year and order of parturition should be considered when comparing animals.