TOTAL AND DIFFERENTIAL CELL COUNT IN MILK OF PRIMIPAROUS COMISANA EWES WITHOUT CLINICAL SIGNS OF MASTITIS

Total and differential cell counts were carried out on foremilk and bu lk milk taken from single half-udders from ten primiparous Comisana ew es. The aim of this study was to characterise the cellular composition of milk in relation to the different stages of lactation, milk fracti ons and bacteriology. Total somatic cell count (SCC) and differential cell count (DCC) of neutrophil (PMNL) and eosinophil (EO) leukocytes, lymphocytes (LY), macrophages (MA) and epithelial cells (EC) were dete rmined on all milk samples during the entire lactation period. The ari thmetic mean of SCC in milk during the milking stages considered (incl uding foremilk and bulk milk samples from single half-udders) was 56.7 +/- 45.2 x 10(3) ml(-1) consisting of 30.6% PMNL, 57.3% MA, 8.2% LY, 2.2% EC, and 0.1% EO. The results showed an influence of bacterial inf ection, different lactation stages and the two different milk fraction s on the number of different cell classes. Lactation stage seemed to h ave an effect on total somatic cell number and all cell classes, while the positive bacteriology of milk samples seemed to influence especia lly the number of PMNL, and the milk fractions influenced mainly the n umber of mononucleate cells (MA, LY and EC). In spite of these variati ons, primiparous Comisana ewe milk, from clinically healthy and non-in fected udders, seemed to have a low content of somatic cells (< 100 00 0 ml(-1)) with PMNL less than 50 000 ml(-1).