Somatic cell count in dairy goats I: association with infectious and non-infectious factors

BMC Veterinary Research

Table 1 Description of the four Norwegian dairy goat farms (A-D) included in the study

		Farm
Description	A	B	C	D
Bulk milk somatic cell count^a
2020	1151	1238	753	831
2021	888	1270	610	572
2022	806	1326	598	864
Bulk milk somatic cell count^b
Indoor spring	499	911	264	540
Pasture	1554	1673	1321	1312
Fall	1189	1579	659	1170
Herd size^c	92	119	115	62
Average annual milk production^d	750	509	741	688
Proportion of goats > third parity (%)	34	40	63	25
Replacement rate (%)
2021	31	20	22^e	41
2022	21	23	16^e	25
Flooring/bedding	Metal mesh	Plastic mesh	Deep bedded straw	Plastic mesh
Milking system	Pipeline	Parlour	Parlour	Parlour
Automatic cluster removal	No	Yes	Yes^f	No
Access to outdoor areas outside pasture season	No	No	Yes	Yes
Milking-time testing^g
Machine on time^h	01:47	02:08	01:37	01:39
Overmilkingⁱ	00:07	00:12	00:04	00:47
Average vacuum level, kPa^j	35.04	34.66	34.23	35.61

^a12-month geometric mean (*1000 cells/mL)
^bMean bulk milk somatic cell count (*1000 cells/mL) according to seasons (mean of 2021 and 2022)
^cAverage annual number of milk goats
^dKg milk pr goat > 1 parity, 280 days lactation
^eFarm C did not have a constant replacement rate the years before the study
^fAutomatic cluster removal at the home farm only
^gMountain farm C, home farm A, B and D
^hTime (minutes, seconds) from start milking to end milking
ⁱTime (minutes, seconds) in the overmilking period (no milk flow but still milking)
^jkPa in the short milk tube (SMT) during main milking (b-phase)

ISSN: 1746-6148