THE STUDY OF THE SOMATIC CELLS COUNTING (SCC) FROM SHEEP MILK OBTAINED IN CONVERSION AND ORGANIC CERTIFIED FARMS

Abstract

The study concerning the total somatic cells counting (SCC) from the sheep milk collected from conventional and organic farms shows the following aspects: The milk from conventional farms with different milking sheep effectives (10-50 heads; 51-100; 101-300; 301-500), contains between 98,000 and 5 millions SC/mL. The share of the samples with under 500,000 SC/mL (corresponding milk), was of 21.90%, bigger in small farms and smaller in big farms (31.20%, 12.60%, respectively). The share of the satisfactory milk samples (500,000 – 1,000,000 SC/mL) was 29.45% in average, and 29.83% for those which are on the limit of processing (1 – 2 millions SC/mL). The samples with over 2,000,000 SC/mL milk, of very low quality, recorded an average of 18.82%, and led to prejudices in its processing. The milk collected from farms in conversion or organic certified have a slight better technological quality (20-24% samples under 500,000 CS/mL and only 14-17% samples with over 2,000,000 CS/mL). This is not determined by the rearing system with a more serious technological flow.