Relationships Between Milk Somatic Cell Count and pH in Dairy Cows

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the relationships between Somatic Cell Count (SCC) and pH in bovine raw milk. Bucket milk samples were evaluated by direct microscopic method using methylene blue stain and a digital pH meter. SCC data were transformed to log 10 base and ANOVA was used to compute two parameters with SPSS. Overall mean log SCC and pH were estimated to be 5.747±0.0017 and 6.547±0.007, respectively. No significant differences were determined according to Test Days (TD) but effect of TD on pH was significant (p<0.05). When the data were assessed by SCC subgroups, 22.67% of those were recorded withm elevated (750×103 cells Ml-1) SCC group. The findings show that pH records of raw milk are not suggested to determine subclinical mastitis or quality of milk. © Medwell Journals, 2010.