Some udder and nipple characteristics, number of somatic cells (SHS), milk yield and their correlation between them in halep goats

The aim of this study was to determine the teat and udder characteristics, somatic cell count (SCC), milk yield and the relationships between 38 Aleppo goats reared under semi-intensive conditions in a private enterprise in Elazığ. The animal material of the study consisted of Aleppo goats aged 4, who gave birth to twins in the third lactation and on the same dates. The lactation time of Aleppo goats was determined as 175.08 ± 3.44 days, 232.51 ± 5.66 kg and 223540.00 ± 16807.50 cells / ml in milk yield and SCC in milk at the peak period of lactation. In goats, udder characterics have been identifed as udder height from ground (UHG), udder width (UW), udder circumference (UC), teat length (TL), teat circumference (TC) and udder volume (UV) in goats were 39.74 ± 0.45, 28.59 ± 0.72, 54.30 ± 1.23, 11 ± 5.73, 5.74 ± 4 cm and 1616.84 ± 27.78 ml. In the study, two different udder lobing structures were determined according to the structure of the udder lobe, 68.4% of them had 3 points (pear shaped udder) and 31.6% had 5 points (large teats, lower and vertical udder) on the nine-point evaluation scale. No statistically significant differences were found between udder lobing structures in terms of examined udder and teat (P> 0.05). Lactation milk yield and duration of lactation udder lobing structure was 311.10 ± 14.44 kg for those evaluated with 5 points, and 302.948 ± 8.72 kg for 182 days with 173 points and 182 days (P> 0.05). Correlation coefficients between milk yield, udder and teat measurements and SCC were not statistically significant (P> 0.01). In this study also lactation milk yield amount, duration, SCC value and determined udder characteristics of Aleppo goats were calculated. In this research, positive correlations were found between teat length and udder circumference, udder volume and teat length, udder volume and teat circumference (P<0.01), negative correlations were found between udder height from ground and udder width, udder circumference band teat length, teat circumference and udder volume (P>0.01). In this study, in the 4 Aleppo goats which they giving twin birth, the average lactation duration was 175.08 days, lactation milk yield was 232.51 kg, measurement day morning and evening milk yield 779.79 gr - 701.89 gr, SCC 223540 cells/ml, and according to udder type and udder lobing structure. 68.4% were category 3 and and 31.6% were category 5 and 9. Udder and teat characteristics were determined as TL 5.74 cm, TC 4.01 cm, UV 1617 cm³, UHG 39.74 cm, UW 28.59 cm, and UC 54.30 cm. As a result, in Aleppo breast with goat this research, the relationship between teat features and SHS were examined for the first time in Turkey. It was determined that there were two different types of breasts in Aleppo goats in the scope of this research. In this study, the correlations between breast, nipple characteristics, milk yield and SHS values were not found to be statistically significant except some correlations between some breast characteristics of Aleppo goats. Again in this research, it was found that the number of SHS in Aleppo goats was much lower than that of other goat breeds.