Microbial quality of raw cow’s milk collected from farmers and dairy cooperatives in Bahir Dar Zuria and Mecha district, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate microbial quality of raw cow’s milk taken at different sampling points from farmers and dairy cooperatives in Bahir Dar Zuria and Mecha district. The overall mean total bacterial count, coliform count and percent lactic acid of milk produced in the study area were 7.58  0.09 log10 cfu/ml, 4.49  0.11 log10 cfu/ml and 0.23%  0.01, respectively. The hygienic quality of raw cow’s milk of the dairy cooperatives was poor with an overall mean total bacteria count, coliform count and percent lactic acid of 8.12 log cfu/ml, 4.94 log cfu/ml and 28 percent, respectively. The overall mean of the predicted probabilities of clot-on-boiling and alcohol tests were 0.23  0.12 and 0.51  0.11, respectively. While, most of the milk samples collected from the dairy cooperatives were likely to clot both by clot-on-boiling and alcohol tests as compared to the samples collected from individual farmers. All the indirect tests and the actual bacterial counts indicated that the microbiological quality of milk produced by farmers and collected by the dairy cooperatives in the study area was poor and this call for scrupulous hygienic measures during production and handling of milk.