## 3 Results  
Table 1 shows the distribution of Somatic Cell Counts (SCC), Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CNS) and true positive for residues of antibiotics samples, with respect to the month of the milking period. Group B represents the farms that follow a more traditional farming practice and let the animals graze with limited administration of additional concentrated feeds. As shown in Table 1, the somatic cells' count (SCC) values ranged from 5.05 \(\pm\) 0.4 log cells/mL in July to 5.42 \(\pm\) 0.5 log cells/mL in June. Although statistically significant differences were noted, these differences did not reveal a seasonal pattern except that by the end of the milking period (the last two months) the SCC values were lower than the ones in the beginning of \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Month**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Group A**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Group B**} \\ \cline{2-10}  & **SCC** & **CNS** & **Res.** & **S. aureus** & **E. coli** & **SCC** & **CNS** & **Res.** & **S. aureus** & **E. coli** \\ \hline March & \(5.33\pm 0.42\)  & \(6\) & \(1.61\pm 0.2\) & \(1.62\pm 0.38\) & \(5.20\pm 0.39\)  & \(1\) & \(1.20\pm 0.21\) & - \\ \hline April & \(5.25\pm 0.43\)  & \(2\) & \(1.34\pm 0.2\) & - & \(5.52\pm 0.37\)  & \(0\) & \(1.20\pm 0.21\) & - \\ \hline May & \(5.28\pm 0.49\)  & \(7\) & - & \(2.41\pm 0.3\) & \(5.77\)  & \(3\) & \(1.36\pm 0.20\) & - \\ \hline June & \(5.42\pm 0.36\)  & \(6\) & - & - & \(5.07\pm 0.37\)  & \(0\) & - & - \\ \hline July & \(5.05\pm 0.40\)  & \(0\) & - & \(1.01\pm 0.3\) & \(5.04\pm 0.64\)  & \(3\) & \(1.32\pm 0.37\) & \(1.81\pm 0.2\) \\ \hline August & \(5.14\pm 0.47\)  & \(1\) & - & \(1.89\pm 0.49\) & \(5.22\pm 0.24\)  & \(0\) & - & - \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} SCC: in \(10^{5}\) cells/mL; CNS, _S aureus_ & _E. coli_: in log cfu/ml; Similar superscript letters in columns indicate no statistically significant differences (ANOVA with [PERSON]’s post hoc comparisons at 95%); Res: true positive samples for residues of antibiotics /20 samples.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Distribution of average Somatic Cell Counts, average Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus counts and true positive samples for residues of antibiotics, with respect to the month of the milking period and the group. the milking period (the first two months). Coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) were isolated from milk samples throughout the whole milking period. The correlation between CNS counts and SCC counts were not significant (\(p\) = 0.95716). CNS counts did not differ significantly at the first three months of the milking period, but they suddenly increased in June, then they fell in July and then they increase again in August. The true positive tests for residues of antibiotics in milk samples, variate through the beginning, the middle and the end of the milking period without any statistical significance (\(\chi^{2}\) = 1.2137, \(p\) = 0.545078, df = 2). In Group A are included all the farms that employed more modern practices of farming such as the administration of concentrated feeds and machine milking. Table 1 shows the results of this group and reveals that the SCC counts range varied from 5.05 \(\pm\) 0.40 log cells/mL in July to 5.42 \(\pm\) 0.36 log cells/mL in June. Despite some statistically significant differences no clear seasonal pattern was observed, other than a gradual growth from April to June, then a sudden drop in July and a slight increase in August. The correlation of these counts to the counts of CNS was not significant (\(p\) = 0.95716). CNS counts increase suddenly in June, then they drop rapidly in July and then they significantly increase again in August. The true positive tests for residues of antibiotics significantly increase in the middle (May-June) and drop by the end (July-August) of the milking period (\(\chi^{2}\) = 12.1336, \(p\) = 0.002319, df = 2).