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The Pinzgau breed in Romania (known as Pinzgau from Transylvania) is a very valuable genetic resource, and can be found mainly in the NW of the Carpathian Mountains, the Dornelor basin with the Bucovina High Hills (Obcinele Bucovinene), SW of Transylvania. In the absence of a coherent active conservation program, this resource may disappear at any time. In our opinion, the major vulnerability of the Pinzgau breed is the indiscriminate infusions with Red Holstein or Simmental, as a consequence of the lack of firm actions to preserve the genetic heritage. The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for milk somatic cells count, character that significantly affect the health of animals and milk constituents that gives its quality. Also, this character could allow a selection of individuals in the direction of resistance to mastitis. A total 252 milk yield and associated characters records, belonging to 63 females from Suceava County, which coming from 8 sire families, for 4 lactations were analyzed. In the absence of consistent data, the paternal origin of females was established after ear tags. The method used for genetic parameters estimates was REML. Study has revealed the existence of a poor genetic determinism for somatic cell count and a high variability of character analyzed according to number of lactation. The results indicate that environmental factors have a greater contribution to the phenotypic manifestation of character. So, the number of somatic cells must be exclusively an indicator of milk hygiene and not included in selection for mastitis resistance of Romanian Pinzgau within active conservation program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]