Dairy cows might normally live for about 20 years, but typically slaughtered for

hamburger after just a few years old when they produce less milk and their profitability

drops.

But another leading cause of cow culling is mastitis, utter inflammation infections,

which affect 99.7% of all dairy operations in the United States.

Because of the mastitis epidemic in the U.S. dairy herd, the dairy industry continues to demand

that American milk retain among the highest allowable somatic cell

concentration, nearly twice as much as the rest of the world, 750,000 cells per

milliliter.

The concentration in milk from healthy udders should be less than 100,000.

These somatic cells are mostly white blood cells, so when you get up to around 200,000, which is like a million per teaspoon, the

utter is likely to be infected.

So the somatic cell counts in the bulk milk tanks reflect the level of infection.

Basically, if the bulk milk tank, which can hold thousands of gallons, averages 200,000, then 15%

of the contributing cows are likely infected. At a concentration of 400,000, which is more

in line with international standards, a third of the cows are likely infected. And staying

within the 750,000 U.S. limit for grade A milk could reflect that about two-thirds of the

cows are infected.

Now, somatic cells are not synonymous with pus cells, as has sometimes been misleadingly

suggested.

Just as normal human blood and breast milk contain low levels of white blood cells,

so does milk from healthy

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