Samenvatting

The dairy goat sector in Norway is confronted to a certain problem since many years, the increase of the cells in goat milk. This cell issue seem to become a big problem for the goat farmers because the somatic cell count and the bacteria count are the base of the payment grid. Other studies in the world found the same results as in Norway, and searched some explanation for this increase during summer, but Norway don’t know if these results can be applicable to their herds. Due to a very high cell count or bacteria count, farmers are less paid and it can decrease the quality of the dairy products. It is therefore important for all the actors in the Norwegian dairy goat sector to know the causes and how to manage them in order to improve this component in goat milk. For that, the company TINE, associated with the Norwegian University of Life Science started a 4-years project about the somatic cell count in goat milk. This year nine goat farms, located in different areas in Norway were analyzed. Milk and teat samples from each goat were taken in 3 periods: during spring, when goats are still in the barn, during summer when goats are grazing in the pasture, and finally during autumn, when goats are back in the barn, it is also the heat and mating season. The parity of each goat has been collected as well. With these data, the following question emerged :What is the impact of the seasons and the parity on the somatic cell count and bacteria count in Norwegian goat milk?