Somatic cell counts in French dairy goat flocks: factors of variation and implementation of genetic selection

Overview & Synopsis

Milk Somatic Cell Counts (SCC) have been collected since the end of the 1990s by Milk Recording Organizations and stored in the national goat information system. The analysis of these data showed a SCC increase of 675 000 cell/mL in Saanen (+55%) and 485 000 cell/mL in Alpine (+43%) over the last fifteen years, with an acceleration of this trend over the last three years. Parity, days in milk, period of parturition and milk production level were found to be important factors of variation. Since genetics is one of the means to act on SCC, and to improve sanitary quality of milk and animal health, a genetic evaluation was implemented for SCC on both breeds. Then, a study was conducted to include this new index in the total merit index (ICC) used for planned matings. Expected genetic trend for different combinations of ICC was estimated. With the ICC retained for each breed, an SCC improvement is expected with an annual decrease of 10 000 cell/mL, while preserving a large trend in production traits.