Journal of Analytical & Bioanalytical Techniques
Open Access

Research Article

Effect of Somatic Cell Count on Bovine Milk Protein Fractions

Ramos TM^1*, Costa FF², Pinto ISB³, Pinto SM⁴ and Abreu LR⁴

¹Department of Animal and Food Sciences, University of Delaware, Christina Mill Drive, Newark, Delaware, United States of America

²Department of Food Science, Federal University, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

³Department Animal and Food Sciences, Embrapa Gado de Leite, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

⁴Department of Food Science, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Brazil

*Corresponding Author:

Ramos TM
Department Animal and Food Sciences
University of Delaware, 1045
Christina Mill Drive, Newark, Delaware
19711, United States of America
Tel: 302-831-2501
E-mail: thaisramos85@yahoo.com.br

Received date: July 07, 2015; Accepted date: August 18, 2015; Published date: August 25, 2015

Citation: Ramos TM, Costa FF, Pinto ISB, Pinto SM, Abreu LR (2015) Effect of Somatic Cell Count on Bovine Milk Protein Fractions. J Anal Bioanal Tech 6:269 doi:10.4172/2155-9872.1000269

Copyright: © 2015 Ramos TM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of somatic cell count (SCC) on the physicochemical properties and protein fractions of milk. Milk was collected and analyzed for somatic cell count, fat, lactose, acidity, total solids, ash, total nitrogen, soluble nitrogen at pH 4.6, and soluble nitrogen in trichloroacetic acid (TCA) 12%. Milk was divided into four groups according to the value of SCC, each constituting a treatment, as follows: Treatment 1 (<300,000 cells/ml), Treatment 2 (300,000 to 750,000 cells/ml), Treatment 3 (750,000-1,000,000 cells/ ml), and Treatment 4 (>1 million cells/ml). The electrophoretic profile of milk was also evaluated using microfluidic electrophoresis for separation and quantification of milk proteins. An increase in the concentration of SCC resulted in a significant increase in the amount of fat, soluble nitrogen and soluble protein (casein) fractions, and a reduction of α-casein, β-casein, and κ-casein. There was a higher proteolytic activity associated with high SCC. Changes in protein fractions of milk caused by high SCC had strong implications regarding the potential of milk as raw material for manufacturing products as the industrial yield of milk is mainly associated with the casein fraction.

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