COMPARISON OF FOUR METHODS FOR ENUMERATING SOMATIC CELLS IN MILK WITH AN ELECTRONIC COUNTER

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Abstract
Four chemical fat dispersion methods for conducting the Electronic Somatic Cell Count of milk were studied. The four methods were Rapid/Fixation/Dispersion, Somafix/Somaton, and two methods reported by the International Dairy Federation. Results were critically affected by variations in several procedural factors: type of test tube used for cell fixation and fat dispersion; ratio of milk to diluent; duration of cellular fixation; temperature and duration of fat dispersion; aging of milk samples before analysis; aging of fixed and dispersed samples; and method to agitate samples after fixation and dispersion. After standardization of procedures, the four methods were used, under regulatory testing conditions, to determine the cellular content of three groups of 50 samples of bulk herd milk. A Wisconsin Mastitis Test was done on each and a Direct Microscopic Somatic Cell Count was done on the latter two groups of samples. Attempts to fix cells and disperse fat simultaneously with a Rapid/Fixation/Dispersion method were unsatisfactory. The somatic cell estimates obtained with the other three methods were in good agreement with the direct microscopic results; correlation coefficients ranged from r = 0.854 to 0.977. Merits of each of the four methods are discussed.

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