The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the correlation between electronic somatic cell count (eSCC) and Somaticell® under different milk somatic cell count (SCC) conditions and to different mastitis pathogens and calculate the, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of Somaticell® using different SCC limits established by different countries. Three-hundred and forty milk samples were aseptically collected according to the California Mastitis Test (CMT) result. The Somaticell® and eSCC were carried out in all milk samples. The correlation between Somaticell® test results and electronic counts was determined according to the CMT, isolated pathogen and eSCC score. According to the SCC scores established, 26.5% milk samples showed score 1 (69-166x10³cells mL-1), 26.8% score 2 (167-418x10³cells mL-1), 27.4% score 3 (419-760x10³cells mL-1) and 19.4% score 4 (761 to 1,970x10³cells mL-1). According to Spearmann correlation test, eSCC and Somaticell® had a positive correlation (P<0.05) in almost all conditions (except eSCC score 2 and score 3). The r value obtained between the SCC and Somaticell® was 0.32. It was observed that as the SCC thresholds increased, the sensitivity values decrease and specificity increased. The predictive values remained constant among all limits. When the SCC limit is lower (<760,000cells mL-1), Somaticell® resulted in higher counts than the SCC. As for samples with high SCC, Somaticell® resulted in lower counts than the eSCC. The correlation between the two methods remained relatively constant in all conditions and the sensitivity and specificity of the test is highly dependent of the threshold established. The results of this study suggest that Somaticell® is not useful to evaluate milk SCC, as its results are significant different from the eSCC. Therefore it could be used as a screening method, such as CMT, to detect an increase in the milk SCC.
evaluation; somatic cell count; Somaticell®
