Milk leucocyte counts and their significance in mastitis control

Extract The most common causes of bovine mastitis are bacterial in origin. One of the basic host responses to tissue injury from bacterial infection is the infiltration of leucocytes predominantly neutrophils from blood into the area of injury. It is this leucocyte response which is usually measured when a somatic cell estimation or count is above the normally accepted range. A somatic cell count includes the epithelial and bacterial cells, whereas a leucocyte count refers only to* the specific estimation of neutrophils. For the purpose of this paper, an increased somatic cell estimation or count has been regarded as an increase in the leucocyte count.