Milk cells

Milk cells is a collective term for the body's own cells that enter the milk from the blood and mammary gland tissue . In healthy mammals , milk contains only a few of these cells; an increased proportion is an indicator of irritated or inflamed mammary glands and is due to a non-specific defense reaction.

The number of milk cells in cows therefore plays an important role in the dairy industry . In animals with a healthy udder it fluctuates between 20,000 and 100,000 per milliliter, in diseases of the udder it reaches 20 to 50 million and more.

Milk cells essentially consist of cells from the body's own defense system. They include polymorphonuclear leukocytes with a proportion of milk cells of 12 to 60 percent in a healthy udder and up to 90 percent in an inflamed udder, lymphocytes with a proportion of normally 4 to 40 percent and macrophages with a proportion of 40 percent in healthy animals. In addition, there are cells and cell parts that are not yet differentiable, such as dead cells and cell plasma envelopes. Their share in the milk cells of ripe cow's milk is between 14 and 54 percent. Giant cells, monocytes and epithelial cells may still be present in a very small proportion .