The National Milk Producers Federation in the United States has passed a resolution to increase standards for somatic cell counts (SCCs) in steps over the next three years to a legal limit of no more than 400,000 SCCs per millilitre of milk by Jan. 1, 2014. The current standard is 750,000. High somatic cell counts arean indication of infection in the udder. (Dairy Farmers of Ontario considers an SCC over 400,000 to be “elevated” and penalizes producers.)
Jamie Jonker, the federation’s vice-president of scientific and regulatory affairs, says the resolution has nothing to do with pressure from the European Union to have a similar standard on dairy products that are exported to that trading bloc.