The NMC Board of Directors voted to submit a proposal to the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) to lower the somatic cell count (SCC) regulatory limit in the U.S. from 750,000 to 400,000 cells/ml. The Board action took place at the NMC 40th Annual Meeting, held February 11-14, 2001 in Reno, Nevada.
Two years ago NMC submitted a similar SCC proposal to NCIMS, however no action was taken. The last time NCIMS took action to lower the SCC limit was at the 1991 Conference, when the voting delegates approved an amended NMC proposal which lowered the SCC from 1,000,000 to 750,000, effective July 1, 1993. The original proposal submitted by NMC was to lower the SCC from 1,000,000 to 500,000 over the course of three years.
The proposal submitted this year would reduce the SCC regulatory limit in a stepwise fashion over the next four years, with the final effective date being January 1, 2005. In addition, regulatory action would be based on a three-month rolling herd average SCC (calculated using a geometric mean), rather than three of five consecutive samples exceeding the SCC limit as is currently the case.
The suggested time table as proposed by NMC follows:
§ January 1, 2002 - Maintain the current regulatory limit for SCC and means for determining compliance, but phase in the adoption of a geometric mean calculation for herd SCC. The new program would require SCC to be determined on all herds once during each calendar month by an FDA approved regulatory laboratory. Monthly sampling and calculation of the rolling geometric mean should be operational by all state regulatory agencies by December 31, 2002.
§ January 1, 2003 - Lower the regulatory limit to 600,000 based on a geometric mean.
§ January 1, 2004 - Lower the regulatory limit to 500,000 based on a geometric mean.
§ January 1, 2005 - Lower the regulatory limit to 400,000 based on a geometric mean.
NCIMS meets every other year to consider proposed changes to the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance and allied documents which establish the condition under which Grade A milk is inspected, produced, hauled, processed, stored and packaged. Conference participants include representatives from industry, government and educational institutions. Voting delegates are limited to state rating and enforcement agency representatives. All Conference actions are subject to review and concurrence by the Food and Drug Administration. This year's Conference is scheduled for May 5-10, 2001 in Wichita, Kansas.
From the NMC newsletter "Udder Topics" February-March 2001