Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics in association with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) are proud to announce the launch of the groundbreaking Genocells technology that allows dairy farmers to determine individual somatic cell counts (SCC) using a single bulk tank milk sample.

This service will be available exclusively to Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics milk recording customers this spring.

The National Genotyping Programme (NGP) introduced by ICBF in 2023 has provided a natural pathway for the rollout of this new service to Irish dairy farmers.

ICBF CEO, Sean Coughlan highlighted: “ICBF is delighted to see Genocells launch in the Irish market.

"Thanks to the National Genotyping Programme, over 4,000 dairy herds are now fully genotyped, giving them access to this innovative service to enhance SCC management.”

Genocells works by extracting the DNA from the somatic cells in the milk and comparing the genotype of this extracted DNA to the recorded genotype of the cows contributing milk to the bulk tank.

As somatic cells are the only milk components that contain DNA, the percentage of DNA that each cow contributes to the overall DNA volume in the bulk tank is equivalent to the percentage of somatic cells that each cow contributes to bulk tank SCC.

This is known as percentage cellular responsibility.

Individual SCCs are then calculated using the percentage cellular responsibility, the percentage of the milk volume that the cow contributed to the tank (calculated using milk recording yields) and the bulk tank SCC result.

Genocell's SCC results are reported using bands (0-5;51-199;200-249;250-499;500-999;1000+).

CEO of Munster Bovine, Martin Kavanagh said: “Munster Bovine’s commitment is to provide services that bring value to farmers, ensure that the right data is collected and this information is easy to use to make the right management decisions about the cows.

“Genocells in conjunction with the milk recording service is the next step in this commitment to delivering innovative services that bring real value to farmers.

"Genocells requires minimal effort to test an entire herd for SCC and we will continue to develop this service over the coming years to improve mastitis and cell count management," he added.

Genocells will provide more points of information over and above the four milk recordings to manage herds with high or fluctuating cell counts;
Genocells is also suitable for low cell count herds that experience spikes in cell count as it is a simple and convenient way of identifying high SCC cows relatively quickly;
Genocells can also provide more points of information about individual cows before dry off to make better decisions regarding dry cow therapy and cow retention.​

All cows contributing milk to the bulk tank must be genotyped. If a non-genotyped cow contributes milk to the bulk tank, this will affect the accuracy of the results for other cows;
The herd must be a member of ICBF HerdPlus;
The herd owner must download the ICBF HerdPlus app. There is no cost associated with this;
The herd must be signed up to do four milk recordings in the year and the first milk recording must be completed before a Genocells test can take place, as yield is essential to calculate individual SCCs from the percentage cellular responsibility.

CEO of Progressive Genetics, Brendan Scanlon said: “Progressive Genetics has been at the forefront of bringing innovative technologies to our customers and Genocells is our latest offering.

"Genocells will complement our milk recording service by giving the farmer additional information on the herd’s highest SCC offenders and on a more frequent basis."

Genocells will be available to Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics milk recording customers from April 1, 2025.