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Review
. 2018 May;11(5):562-577.
doi: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.562-577. Epub 2018 May 2.

Milk somatic cells, factors influencing their release, future prospects, and practical utility in dairy animals: An overview

Mohanned Naif Alhussien  1 , Ajay Kumar Dang  1
Affiliations
Review

Milk somatic cells, factors influencing their release, future prospects, and practical utility in dairy animals: An overview

Mohanned Naif Alhussien et al. Vet World. 2018 May.

Abstract

Milk somatic cells (SCs) are a mixture of milk-producing cells and immune cells. These cells are secreted in milk during the normal course of milking and are used as an index for estimating mammary health and milk quality of dairy animals worldwide. Milk SC is influenced by cow productivity, health, parity, lactation stage, and breed of an animal. Any change in environmental conditions, poor management practices, and also stressful conditions significantly increases the amount of SC coming in milk. Better hygiene and proper nutrition help in reducing milk SC. Milk with low SC means better milk products with a longer shelf life. The present review describes the role of SCs (both secretory and immune) in milk, their role in maintaining the integrity of the mammary gland, and factors affecting their release in milk. This information may help to reduce milk somatic cell counts (SCCs) and to establish differential SCC standards.

Keywords: dairy animals; factors influencing; milk; somatic cells release; utility.

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Figures

Figure-1
Figure-1
Diagrammatic representation of the worldwide limits of milk somatic cell counts in cows. Source: Alhussien and Dang
Figure-2
Figure-2
Diagrammatic representation showing both healthy and mastitis mammary gland. The invasion of pathogens to the internal tissues of mammary gland stimulates the trafficking of various immune cells to the site of inflammation which results in elevation of somatic cell counts in the secreted milk. Source: Alhussien and Dang
Figure-3
Figure-3
Milk somatic cell counts in different breeds of healthy cows.
Figure-4
Figure-4
Microscopic examination of milk somatic cells smear showing that macrophages are the major cell in low somatic cell counts (SCCs) and neutrophils are the main cell in high SCC.
Figure-5
Figure-5
Diagrammatic representation of various factors and management practices that modulate the number of somatic cells in a dairy herd.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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