Assessment of the Quality and the Factors That Influence Bacteriological Contamination of Raw Milk in Uganda

Abstract

Milk plays an important role in the human body due to its rich nutritional content that enhances a good sensory property and contains most of the nutrients needed for rapid mental and physical development as well as the ability to decrease the likelihood of many nutritional deficiency diseases. This study sought to determine the total plate load of microbes and coliforms, the prevalence of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and to determine the factors related to Staphylococcus aureus and coliforms contamination in raw milk from large and small-scale farms in the central region of Uganda. A cross sectional study design was employed for this investigation. The study included farmers and herdsmen from the selected districts of central Uganda region. Two forms of data were collected; the sociological data through the use of questionnaires and laboratory-based data from analysis of milk samples. Open and closed-ended questionnaires were deployed for the study to gather information on animal management practices, common animal diseases, milk production techniques, and sociological requirements. The study findings revealed that the Total Plate Count had a mean of 86,025,159.35 with 169(83.3per cent) positive cases and 34(16.7per cent) negative cases. Total coliform count had a mean of 22,275,065.42 with 166(81.8per cent) positive cases. Total E. coli count had a mean of 1,292,131.53 with 153(75.4per cent) positive cases. The prevalence of Escherichia coli was 75.4per cent. Total Staphylococcus count had a mean of 1,515,087.19 (±5,351,875.853) and ranged from 0 to 29,900,000. There were 161(79.3per cent) positive cases and 42(20.7per cent) negative cases. The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus was 79.3per cent. In conclusion, farm management practices such as hand hygiene, animal housing conditions, and cleaning the udder before milking was shown to influence the prevalence of milk microbial contamination. Farms with more cows and where more cows were milked mainly for commercial purposes reported lower prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus compared to their counterparts. It is recommended that there is a need to investigate the risk of milk borne contamination caused by SFP and Coliforms and provide surveillance data to give a mechanism for risk assessment analysis and for the development of government standards for milk quality which does not currently exist in Uganda