Public Health Safety in Relation to Microbiological Quality of Freshly Drawn Cow’s Milk in Bangladesh

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine the microbial quality of freshly drawn cow’s milk belonging to the arsenic affected and non-affected areas. In the present work 25 milk sample were collected from five different arsenic affected and non-affected areas. The analysis comprised enumeration of total viable count (TVC), total coliform count (TCC) and total staphylococcal count (TSC) for the determination of sanitary quality. The highest total viable count, total coliform count and total staphylococcus count were log 5.894 ± 0.221, log 2.832± 0.129 and log 2.898 ± 0.162 respectively. Staphylococcus spp, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas spp and Bacillus spp were isolated from the milk samples. Among them Escherichia coli were isolated from the maximum milk samples. It is found that the level of microbial quality in terms of TVC, TCC and TSC were high in arsenic affected areas than arsenic non-affected area. It also found that TVC and TCC were positively correlated with each other. This survey indicates that most of the raw milk samples were not satisfactory in course of public health standard as some pathogenic bacteria were detected from these samples and it is necessary to improve the hygienic practices required for the handling and processing of milk.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjvm.v12i2.21297 Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2014). 12 (2): 231-236