*3.3. Somatic Cell Counts*

Somatic cells were completely removed from both ovine and bovine permeates, and were concentrated in retentates (Table 1). One of the main purposes of applying MF is the 100% reduction in SCC. In the case of skimmed milk, this can be achieved using a MF membrane of 1.4 μm pore size [4,30], whereas, for raw whole bovine milk, membranes of an average pore size from 12 μm to <sup>5</sup> <sup>μ</sup>m with permeate fluxes between 2000 L·m−2·h−<sup>1</sup> and 1460 L·m−2·h−<sup>1</sup> are needed to remove 93–100% of the SCC [5].
