[Somatic cells in goat milk]

In goats the somatic cell content (SCC) of raw milk is in general considerably higher (often several millions/ml milk) than in cow milk. This refers to milk from healthy and from mastitic mammary glands, to samples from infected and from non-infected udder halves and to single gland and to bulk milk samples as well. On the other hand, there is in every herd of dairy goats a considerable proportion of milk samples with low SCC, which fulfill in this respect all exigencies of a good milk quality. Part of this discrepancy is caused by the method that is used to determine the SCC (presence of nonleukocytic cell-like fragments in goat milk). Further research in order to explain the physiological and pathogenetic causes of the differences between SCC of goat and cow milk is needed before SCC standards and regulations for goat milk quality can be introduced finally.