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Leucocytes and the Methylene Blue Reduction Test¹

Department of Dairying, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

ABSTRACT

Discussion and Conclusions: The mere presence of leucocytes in milk, even in large numbers, and the absence of bacteria in large numbers do not prove a reducing power for the leucocytes. The attempts to furnish proof of such a reducing power have to date depended on strictly quantitative measurements and in the opinion of the writers have been unsuccessful. The need for qualitative measurements seems apparent.

The observations reported in the literature and in this paper are explicable in terms consistent with accepted theories of dye reduction in milk. There are reasons for believing that the abnormal udder conditions responsible for milk of high leucocyte content are also responsible for abnormally high concentrations of reducing substances in the milk. The presence of reducing substances in abnormally high concentrations would explain the observations under discussion without soliciting aid from the leucocytes. This is not, of course, a denial of the possibility of some leucocytes possessing reducing properties but the bulk of the evidence is that leucocytes are rarely, if ever, the main or significant influence in the reduction of methylene blue in milk in practice.

¹ The data contained herein are taken from a thesis presented by N. J. Strynadka (now Inspector of Dairy Products, Dairy and Cold Storage Branch, Dominion Department of Agriculture) at the University of Alberta in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science.