QUALITY OF RAW REFRIGERATED MILK BASED ON SCC AND TBC INDICATORS IN THE SOUTHWEST OF MINAS GERAIS STATE, BRAZIL

Subclinical mastitis is a disease of dairy herds that causes serious financial losses to the producer resulting in reduced production and, in some cases, discarding of milk. Due to this problem, the aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of mastitis in cattle state of raw refrigerated milk producers in a total of 11 dairy farms in the southeast of Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in 2012, and verify suitability to Brazilian Standards IN-62. Duplicated samples were collected every month from April to November 2012 in 11 dairy farms in Southwest of Minas Gerais, bringing a total of 188 milk samples. These samples were collected in cooling tank and stored in sterilized bottles preserved in bronopol for SCC testing and azidiol for coliform microbiological and TBC testing. Among all the analysed variables, SCC results from all the dairy farms differed most from the control group (p <= 0.001). Consequently, according to legislation, all the dairy farms can be classified as contamination risk areas for subclinical mastitis considering that they all exceeded the limit values established by law.