Non-genetic factors affecting somatic cell count in milk of dairy goat populations in Croatia and Slovenia

Abstract

Received: 2018-05-31 | Accepted: 2018-05-31 | Available online: 2018-11-26
https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2018.21.04.179-182

Somatic cell count (SCC) is a useful indicator of intramammary infection of cow’s udders and a standard of quality and hygiene of cow’s milk in many countries. The main non-inflammatory factors influencing SCC in goat milk are intrinsic depending directly on the animal and extrinsic where some of them are routinely recorded along milk recording. The objective of this study was to determine the sources of non-genetic variation for SCC in Alpine (ALP) and Saanen (SAN) dairy goat populations based on Croatian (CRO) and Slovenian (SVN) milk recording data. For that purpose, test day records (327,404 in total) were used. They were collected over the period from 2005 to 2017 in Alpine (ALP) and Saanen (SAN) goat populations in Croatia (CRO) and Slovenia (SVN). The majority of records (310,371) represent CRO data, while SVN data included 17,033 records. Data have been obtained from the Central database of Croatian Agricultural Agency and Slovenian Central Database for Small Ruminants, which are collected according to the ICAR standards. Data were analysed using MIXED procedure in SAS/STAT, based on the REML method. Results showed significant effect of the population, parity, litter size, year and month of kidding and interaction between them as well as the effect of the stage of lactation nested within the population on the SCC in milk of studied goat populations.

Keywords: Alpine goat, Croatia, dairy goat, logSCC, Saanen goat, Slovenia, somatic cell count

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