The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between somatic cell count (SCC) and catalase (CAT) activity of milk samples of Anatolian buffaloes. The data were collected in two smallholder farms of Samsun Province, Turkey. A total of 64 samples of bucket milk was analyzed for SCC and CAT during October to November 2008. SCC analyses were performed using direct microscopy, and CAT values were obtained from the observation of enzyme activity scores. The data were tested by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and farms were compared by t-test. While, no significant differences in each parameter were determined by test days (TD), SCC values tended to elevate with higher CAT scores. In herd level, two farms had similar levels by SCC, but significant differences were obtained in CAT values. Estimated high (r=0.806) correlation in the present work indicated the possibility of using CAT values to determine quality of buffalo raw milk.

Key words: Somatic cell count, catalase activity, milk quality, correlation, Anatolian buffalo.