Study on Contamination of Bovine Raw Milk with Staphylococcal Species in Urban Dairy Farms of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2010-06-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
A cross-sectional study was undertaken from October 2009 to April 2010 to establish the
prevalence of staphylococcus species in bovine udder milk, on teat and udder skin of lactating
cows, milkers' hands and milking and milk collecting equipments and to assess the farm hygiene
and pre-milking practices experienced in 25 randomly selected urban dairy farms of Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of 604 samples comprising 270 bovine udder milk and 270 lactating
cow skin swab samples (135 lactating cow teats and 135 udders) were collected by using cluster
sampling technique. Swab samples from 19 milkers' hands, 22 milking buckets and 23 milk
collecting containers were also collected from the selected farms . All the samples were examined
for the presence of staphylococcus species by using standard bacteriological techniques. The
prevalence of staphylococcus species were: coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) (53%), S.
aureus (8.5%), S. intermedius (0.7%) and S. hyicus (0.7%) in the udder milk; CNS (38.5%), S.
aureus (5.9%) and S. hyicus (0.7%) from udder skin and CNS (32.6%), S. aureus (4.4%), S.
intermedius (1.5%) and S. hyicus (0 .7%) from lactating cow teat skin swab samples. Only CNS
species were isolated from milkers ' hands, milking buckets and milk collecting containers with
the respective prevalence of 42.1 %, 13.6% and 8.7%. The hygienic status of the bams of most of
the visited farms was poor and poor milking hygiene was practiced. The presence of
staphylococci species on teat and udder skin of lactating cows, milkers' hands and milking and
milk collecting equipments indicates the high chance of staphylococci species to contaminate
milk leaving the udder of cow during milking. The high prevalence of staphylococci in the udder
milk demonstrates its role in reducing milk quality and its potential risk for human consumption.
This high contamination rate could be due to increased occurrence of intramammary infection
and very poor hygienic conditions during milking. Educating or training of milking personnel and
other non-milking dairy farm employees concerning the imporance of good quality milk and the
risk arising from contaminated milk; control of mastitis and interamanmary infection;
application of good farm hygiene and following standard milking procedures are important for
minimizing contamination
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Keywords
Addis Ababa, Bovine raw milk, Contamination, Staphylococci