IDF Column ¦ IDM
Improving consistency
in milk somatic cell counting
Author: Aurélie Dubois-Lozier, IDF Science and Standards Programme Manager
Somatic cell counting is a key indicator for udder
May 2020 ¦ international-dairy.com · 29
health in several lactating animals, including dairy
cows. Accurate counting therefore has significance
in food quality regulations milk payment testing,
farm management and breeding programmes.
The counting of somatic cells relies on the performance
of high capacity routine somatic cell counters. Current practice
requires milk laboratories in different geographies to link
to their own individual reference materials, creating potential
issues with comparability and thus equivalence.
Establishing an international reference
system for somatic cell counting
In order to address these issues, a joint project between the International
Dairy Federation (IDF) and the International Committee
for Animal Recording (ICAR) and the European Commission's
Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s
science and knowledge service was established to develop a
common, robust, and internationally accepted anchor point
to implement and safeguard equivalent somatic cell counting
worldwide. After several years of collaboration, in April 2020
the project partners made the welcome announcement that
the reference materials have been launched for use.
The materials (ERM-BD001) are arranged as sets. Each set
consists of two bottles with spray-dried cow milk, one with low
and one with high somatic cell count, characterized by means of
an interlaboratory comparison with 32 laboratories worldwide.
The reference materials' documentation includes instructions
on the reconstitution and defines the intended use: calibration
material for routine methods, and quality control material for
both reference methods and routine methods. Moreover, the
materials can be used to assign values to in-house materials.
Significant importance for the sector
The reference materials will be of great practical importance
to many within the livestock sector, including raw milk testing
laboratories, national and international bodies responsible
for regulations on measuring somatic cell count, supervising
bodies in milk payment testing and many others.
Looking ahead, IDF and ICAR are working on additional
guidance to provide further information on the use of this
material to establish international metrological traceability
for milk analyses.
In addition to the applications already mentioned, the
material will be of specific interest to dairy herd improvement
organisations, QA services, manufacturers and distributors
of routine equipment for somatic cell counting, providers of
secondary reference materials for somatic cell counting, organizers
of proficiency testing, animal health organizations,
universities and research institutes and accreditation bodies.
The reference materials can be acquired directly through
EC JRC or its authorized reference material distributors
(https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/reference-materials/catalogue). It
should be noted that delivery may be delayed till the course
of May due to the COVID-19 outbreak. For more information
about the reference materials, please contact Reinhard Zeleny
(reinhard.zeleny@ec.europa eu).
IDM has
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Have a look at
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