In Southern Italy, buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) milk is mostly intended for the manufacture of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) cheese. Despite the economic boost of the last 2 decades, the buffalo farming system should be improved to maximize the efficiency of the dairy industry, improve yield and quality of milk and cheese, and work toward better animal welfare. Milk somatic cell count (SCC) is used worldwide as an indicator of udder health in individual milk and is useful for monitoring farm hygiene in bulk milk. Mastitis data are currently not available on a large scale in Italy; thus, SCC is essential for identifying animals with suspected udder infection and inflammation. Moreover, high milk SCC is associated with altered composition and acidity, and poor technological properties of milk. However, payment systems of the PDO area are based simply on the delivered volume of milk rather than on quality characteristics. Hence, currently there are no penalties for elevated SCC in bulk milk in the Italian buffalo dairy industry. In addition, SCC for buffalo milk is not mentioned by either the European Community regulations or the PDO protocol, evidencing a lack of rules for the maximum SCC limit. To provide a phenotypic characterization of SCC at the population level and to improve knowledge on buffalo milk quality, 876,299 test-day records of 70,156 buffaloes reared in the PDO area were analyzed. Data revealed that around 11% of herd-test-dates (≥5 animals sampled each) showed average milk SCC ≥400,000 cells/mL (i.e., above the threshold fixed by the European Community for bovine milk). This suggests that there is room to improve SCC at both the farm and individual level. Within first parity, more than 28 and 15% of lactations had average SCC ≥200,000 and ≥300,000 cells/mL, respectively. Both percentages increased with parity and were 39 and 25% in sixth parity, respectively. Supporting this, the proportion of lactations with average SCC ≥500,000 cells/mL increased from 6% in first parity to 12% in sixth parity. Milk yield and SCC were negatively correlated with each other, especially when SCC level was high. An ANOVA was carried out on test-day record milk yield and composition traits, with fixed effects of parity, lactation stage, class of somatic cell score (n = 6), month of calving, and their interactions; buffalo, herd-test-date, and residual were considered random effects. Significantly lower milk yield and lactose percentage were estimated in progressively higher classes of somatic cell score, whereas no significant differences were observed for fat and protein percentages. This is the first attempt to investigate milk SCC in a large data set of Italian dairy buffaloes. These findings may be helpful for defining reliable and effective SCC thresholds to be adopted whenever specific penalties for high SCC are included in milk payment systems. Finally, these results could be used in mastitis monitoring plans aiming to reduce SCC and udder issues at both the individual and farm levels in the Italian buffalo population.

中文翻译：

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意大利水牛的牛奶体细胞计数及其与牛奶产量和品质性状的关系。

在意大利南部，水牛（Bubalus bubalis）牛奶主要用于制造Mozzarella di Bufala Campana保护原产地命名（PDO）奶酪。尽管最近二十年来经济发展迅速，但仍应改善水牛养殖系统，以最大程度地提高乳制品业的效率，提高牛奶和奶酪的产量和质量，并致力于改善动物福利。牛奶的体细胞计数（SCC）在世界范围内被用作单个牛奶中乳房健康的指标，可用于监测散装牛奶中的农场卫生。目前，意大利尚无大规模的乳腺炎数据；因此，SCC对于鉴定怀疑有乳房感染和炎症的动物至关重要。此外，高牛奶SCC与牛奶的成分和酸度改变以及技术性能差有关。然而，PDO地区的付款系统仅基于牛奶的交付量而不是质量特征。因此，目前在意大利水牛乳业中，没有对散装牛奶中SCC升高的处罚。此外，欧共体法规或PDO协议均未提及水牛乳的SCC，这表明缺乏最大SCC限制的规则。为了在人群水平上提供SCC的表型特征，并提高人们对水牛牛奶质量的了解，分析了PDO地区饲养的70,156只水牛的876,299试验日记录。数据显示，大约11％的牛群测试日期（每只≥5只动物）显示平均牛奶SCC≥400,000细胞/ mL（即，高于欧洲共同体确定的牛乳阈值）。这表明在农场和个人层面都有改善SCC的空间。在第一次胎次内，超过28％和15％的泌乳期的平均SCC分别≥200,000和≥300,000细胞/ mL。两个百分比均按同等比例增加，第六个同等比例分别为39％和25％。支持这一点的是，平均SCC≥500,000细胞/ mL的泌乳比例从第一次胎龄的6％增加到第六胎的12％。牛奶产量和SCC呈负相关，特别是当SCC水平高时。在测试日记录的牛奶产量和组成特征上进行了方差分析，其具有胎龄，泌乳阶段，体细胞评分（n = 6），产犊月份及其相互作用的固定影响；水牛，牛群测试日期和残留被认为是随机影响。在体细胞评分逐渐升高的类别中，估计牛奶产量和乳糖百分比显着降低，而脂肪和蛋白质百分比没有显着差异。这是在大量意大利乳牛中对牛奶SCC进行调查的首次尝试。这些发现可能有助于定义可靠和有效的SCC阈值，只要牛奶支付系统中包括针对高SCC的特定惩罚。最后，这些结果可用于乳腺炎监测计划，旨在减少意大利水牛种群的个体和农场水平的乳癌和乳房疾病。这是在大量意大利乳牛中对牛奶SCC进行调查的首次尝试。这些发现可能有助于定义可靠且有效的SCC阈值，只要牛奶支付系统中包括对高SCC的特定惩罚。最后，这些结果可用于乳腺炎监测计划，旨在减少意大利水牛种群的个体和农场水平的乳癌和乳房疾病。这是在大量意大利乳牛中对牛奶SCC进行调查的首次尝试。这些发现可能有助于定义可靠且有效的SCC阈值，只要牛奶支付系统中包括对高SCC的特定惩罚。最后，这些结果可用于乳腺炎监测计划，旨在减少意大利水牛种群的个体和农场水平的乳癌和乳房疾病。