Assessment of Milk Supply Chain and Evaluation of Physicochemical Propertles and Microbial Load of Raw Milk in Selected Districts of Arsi Zone, Ethiopia
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Date
2011-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
A cross-sectional study was conducted fi'om September 20 I 0 to May 20 II in five selected
districts of Arsi zone to assess the husbandry practices. Characterize milk marketing system, identify constraints and opportunities for the dairy sector and to provide baseline information on physicochemical properties and microbial load of raw milk. A total of 220 smallholders were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires and 100 milk samples were collected. Followed by laboratory analysis for physicochemical characteristics and microbial quality of milk. The five study district s showed similarities in herd composition. husbandry practices and milk yield from local breeds. but milk yield from crossbreed animals, age at first calving and calving intervals differed significantly (P<O.05). The constraints more frequently cited in the study districts were feed related. animal diseases. AI. veterinary and extension services accessibility. Although the majority or the constraints cited were similar in the study districts. there were significant (P<0.05) differences in the number or citations between the districts. Informal milk marketing represented the major channel of(79.09% of the respondents) the milk market. In the study areas, milk price and demand were affected. primarily, by season. access to market and fasting and non fasting days. The mean results of fat and total solids percentage among the different collection centers were statistically significant (P<0.05) with highest fat and total solids percentage recorded [1'om Lemu Ariya POC (4.83%) and Lemu Michael POC (13.19%) respectively. Similarly. the total bacterial count, coliform count and somatic cell count showed significant differences (p<0.05) between the collection centers with the highest bacterial (5.82 cfu/ml), coliform (3.19 cfu/ml) and somatic cell (5.81 cells/ml) counts were recorded from Lemu Michael PDC. Lemu Ariya PDC and AMAE dairy farm respectively. The informal milk market largely dominating the milk supply chain and the variations in milk compositional and microbial quality obscrved across and within different collection centers and dairy farms calls for the need to give equal focus to market and hygienic aspects of milk as improving production and productivity of dairy catlle. while planning interventions.
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Keywords
Arsi, daily marketing, microbial quality. milk and physicochemical characteristics