Relazione tra la pulizia delle bovine e la qualità igienica e sanitaria del latte

Relationship between cow hygiene and somatic cell and bacterial counts in bulk tank milk. – The quality of bulk tank milk, in term of bacterial contamination and proliferation, is influenced by milking machine and milk tank cleaning, by animal hygiene and by the presence of mastistis microrganisms into the udder. The aim of the present work was to evaluate cow hygiene (Hygiene Score, HS) and its effects on Somatic Cell Count (SCC) and bacterial count (SBC) in the bulk tank milk. Udder, flank and legs HS were evaluated in 10 farms, each farm were visited twice. SBC, thermoduric and coliform bacteria were evaluated on bulk tank milk (ISO/FIL 4833 and ISO/FIL 4831), SCC were obtained from AIA (Italian Breeders Association) database. Farms with less than 100 cows were characterized by 4.81; 2.44 and 3.05 log10 CFU/mL respectively of SPC, thermoduric and coli bacteria, whereas farms with more than 100 cows had 4.74 log10 CFU/mL of SPC; 2.70 log10 CFU/mL of thermoduric and 2.58 CFU/mL of coli. SSC expressed as Linear Score (LS) was 5.36 e 5.51 respectively in two groups of farms. All farms were quite clean, only 18% of the udder were classified as dirty (HS 3 and 4). Farm visits with less than 10% udder HS 3 and 4, less than 35% of flanks and 40% of legs HS 3 and 4, were characterized by better milk quality than “dirty visits” (CBS = 5.1 vs 5.4 log10 CFU/mL; ther- Bava et al (2008) Sci Tecn Latt-Cas, 59 (4), 000-000 178 moduric = 3.2 vs 3.1 log10 CFU/mL e coli = 2.8 vs 3.5 log10 CFU/mL, for clean and dirty visits respectively).