Review on Milk Yield, Composition, Quality and Microbial Contamination Dairy Cattle Milk in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopian milk production depends on mainly indigenous livestock genetic resources dominated by small holder farmers. The estimated numbers of indigenous milking cows in Ethiopia is about nine million and are in the hands of smallholder farmers and pastoralists under traditional contributions of the sector to the country’s gross domestic product and exports. Milk and milk products play an important role in human nutrition throughout the world. Milk is also highly perishable and can easily be adulterated whilst the quality of the milk is highly dependent on farm management. Sources of microbial contamination of milk like milking environment, cows udder, milker, milking equipments and water the most dominant factor for the quality of milk. To prevent or retard growth of bacteria in milk and to maintain its quality for domestic consumption or transportation to the processing plant cooling, boiling and pasteurization are important to control measures of microbial contamination in raw milk. Clot on boiling test is performed by boiling a small amount of milk in a spoon, test tube or any other suitable container. Chemical composition, particularly milk fat content is used as quality test. The solid constituents of milk make an important food item from both nutritional as well as processing point of view. Keywords:- contamination, composition handling, milk quality DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-19-02 Publication date: October 31 st 2020