Mastitis in a flock of milking sheep

Determination of somatic cell counts (SCC) becomes more and more important also for ewe's milk. SCC can be a useful indicator of milk quality for milk processors while it can be a mastitis indicator for sheep keepers and an important selection criterion for breeders. The objective of our study was to acquire basic information about factors influencing SCC variability in lambing ewes of the Tsigai (T) and Improved Valachian (IV) breeds. Somatic cell counts (SCC) were determined in 866 milk samples in 2017 and 2018, during lamb sucking and during milking period. An instrument Fossomatic 90 (Foss Electric, Hillerød, Denmark) was used for analysis. Average SCC varied from 270 to 1897 × 103 cells/ml during lamb sucking and from 268 to 2139 × 103 cells/ml during milking period. Differences between the sampling periods were statistically significant in 2017. An increase in SCC was observed at the end of both sucking and milking periods. An overall evaluation of lactation brought about the average SCC at 364 × 103 cells/ml in 2017 (log(10) SCC - 2,25) and at 1,091 × 103 cells/ml in 2018 (log(10) SCC - 2,68). The indicator log(10) was significantly influenced by breed in 2017 (T - 2,61; IV - 2,75). The effect of lactation number and number of sucking lambs did not have any significant influence on SCC.