The 6th Symposium on the Milking of Small Ruminants was held in Athens, Greece, from September 26th to October 1st, 1998. While maintaining the specificity of the presentations focusing on hand or machine milking of small ruminants, the symposium also incorporated new topics related to milking: somatic cell counts and mammary infections; new approaches for evaluating the internal morphology of the mammary gland; and automatic reading of milk emission kinetics using electronic devices. The proceedings cover six main topics: physiological aspects of milk secretion; mammary pathology and milking; milking machine and milking management; milking and dairy production systems; milk recording and genetics; and milking and milk quality.