QUANTITATIVE COMPARISON BETWEEN SERUM COMPONENTS AND SOMATIC-CELLS INBOVINE QUARTER MILK

Quantitative comparisons between serum components and somatic cells in 202 bovine quarter milks collected at 3 dairy farms were conducted. D etection of serum components was carried out by an immunological techn ique, and cell counts were calculated by Breed's method. A high correl ation (r=0.77) between cell counts and gamma-globulin contents was dem onstrated, while correlation between cell counts and serum albumin was not close (r=0.45). In a comparison between cell counts and gamma-glo bulin contents, 19 (65.4%) out of 29 milks containing over 500,000 cel ls/ml had gamma-globulin less than 1.138 mg/ml, which was also seen in 97% of 172 milks having less than 500,000 cells/ml. From these result s, it was suggested that the gamma-globulin content of milk might be o f use for differentiating normal milk abnormal ones.