Microbiological quality of the raw cow milk at three rural communes of the eastern region of Morocco

The microbiological safety of raw cow milk from collection centers of three regions in the north-east of Morocco has been studied. It involved 80 samples and was extent over a period of three years. The samples were analysed for the enumeration of Total Plate Count (TPC), total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) as well as the prevalence of pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella sp. The means counts per ml of TPC were 1.4x106 CFU/ml. The total coliforms and fecal coliforms were also high with respective averages of 2.6x103 CFU/ml and 1.9x102 CFU/ml. Pathogenic staphylococci have been detected in 23% of samples with an average count of 1.7x103 CFU/ml. Samples from the Sidi Bouhria commune were more contaminated than the other two stations especially for TPC and FC (p <0.01). However, no significant difference (p> 0.05) was observed in microbial load between the beginning and the end of the study. Basing the regulations applied in Morocco, 75% of samples showed an unsatisfactory quality with respect to the TPC, 52% with respect to fecal coliforms and 21% vis-a-vis Staphylococcus aureus. Salmonella sp. was not detected in all the samples, while Listeria monocytogenes was detected in 3% of samples (1 of 35).