Dr. Gebeyehu GoshuMerema, Siber2020-11-132023-11-082020-11-132023-11-082020-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/23240A cross-sectional study was conducted in urban and peri-urban area of north eastern Ethiopia from November 2019 to April 2020 with the objectives to characterize smallholder dairy cattle production systems and to assess the quality of milk at farm gate and milk collection centers in Kombolcha districts. Totally, 158 randomly selected smallholder farmers from urban and peri-urban areas were included in the study. Data were collected through questionnaire, observation and milk quality analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyze the data. Sixty milk samples were collected and the analysis of microbiological and physical property was analysis. In peri-urban areas, the majority 10 (20.4%) of the respondents keep cattle for milk sale and in urban area the majority 15 (30.6%) keep cattle for asset. About 41.8 % of the farmers use both AI and bull service whereas 30.6 % use natural mating and 27.6 % of them artificial insemination. Mastitis, Blackleg, Bovine-Pasteurellosis, bloat were the prevalent diseases of cattle in the study area. All of the farmers (51.1%) were using separate house type barn for their cows and milking in their house. More of dairy producers (88.8%) washed their hands before milking while the rest 11.2% did not wash their hands. The overall mean microbiological count of log (TBC cfu/ml), log (CC cfu/ml) and log (SCC/ml) of raw milk was 6.88±0.17, 4.85±0.10 and 5.84 ±0.18, respectively. The pH of all the milk samples collected from MP, MC was found to be 6.65±0.04, 6.67±0.05, respectively. The mean specific gravity of raw milk samples collected from milk producers and milk collection center was 1.029±0.002 and 1.028±0.002, respectively. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) within the specific gravity of milk collected from milk producer and milk collection center.enMilk qualitySmallholder dairy productionUrban and peri-urban dairy productionThesis