PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND MICROBIAL QUALITY OF COW MILK COLLECTED FROM SELECTED SUBCITY OF ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA MSc Thesis By Bruktawit shimeles

The study was conducted in Addis Ababa town, central Ethiopia. To assess the general milk handling practice, determine physicochemical properties and evaluate the microbial quality of raw cow milk produced through the milk sheds found in the town. A cross sectional study was conducted in the study area and then purposively based on dairy potential three sub cities i.e., Akaki-Kality, Nifas Silk-Lafito and Bole sub-cities were selected. A total of 90 dairy farms and crossbreed dairy cattle’s were assessed in the study. The result of survey indicates all of the respondents follow the milking procedures washing hands, teats and utensils before and after milking. A majority of the respondents (94.4%) used purchased feeds in the farm and the main source of water was tap water in the study area. For the quality parameter a total of 60 samples of raw milk were collected in the morning from the milk bucket of the respondents. To determine microbial load in raw milk samples total bacterial count, coliform count and somatic cell count were conducted. The analysis result revealed that 8.6 Log10 cfu/ml overall mean of total bacteria count, 6.15Log10 cfu/ml overall mean coliform count and overall mean 198cell/ml somatic cell count. There has been a significance variation (p<0.05) for somatic cell count among the three (small, medium and large) different scale farms. Though there was no significance variation shown among the coliform count and total bacterial count made for the three different farm scales. The result revealed that overall mean for specific gravity, freeing point, add water, fat, protein, solid-non-fat and total solid milk samples were 1.031 ± 0.02,-0.941 ± 1.40 o C, 5.5±10.1, 4.42±1.16%, 3.2±0.33%, 7.6±0.9 and 12.02±1.79% respectively. In general, except FP, SNF and TS the physicochemical property of milk sample obtained from all scale of production was under the acceptable level. However, the microbial quality raw milk produced by the milk shed was poor. Therefore, to ensure safety and quality of milk and health of the public and dairy cow it is suggested to follow hygienic practice on milk production and handling. Key phrases: Chemical composition, microbial quality, milk shade and physical property