Somatic cell count

In dairying, the SCC is an indicator of the quality of milk—specifically, its low likeliness to contain harmful bacteria, and thus its high food safety.

The number of somatic cells increases in response to pathogenic bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus, a cause of mastitis.

[3] The somatic cell count in the milk also increases after calving when colostrum is produced.

Somatic cells originate only from inside the animal's udder, while the bacteria are usually from external contaminations, such as insufficient cleaning of the milk transport equipment or insufficient external cleansing of the cow's udder and teats prior to milking.

Recently technological advances have allowed the dairy producer to test animals individually for SCC at every milking.