Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in Bulk Tank Milk Collected from Dairies of District Allahabad, India

Sufficient evidence exists to effect that milk is an excellent source of nutrients for both man (Sharma and Joshi, 1992) and bacteria (Henry and Newlander, 1997). It is therefore required that milk be consumed only after it is pasteurized to make it safe. Unfortunately, recent evidence has revealed postpasteurization contamination of milk with pathogenic bacteria (Oliver et al., 2005) and antibiotic resistant bacteria. According to Hawkey (2008) antimicrobial resistance is currently the greatest challenge to the effective treatment of infectious globally. Contamination of milk with microbes therefore results in rapid multiplication and this may deteriorate the quality of milk leading to issues of food safety (Frazier and West Hoff, 1986) and public health concern when the microbes are antibiotic resistant (Guerra et al., 2003). Milk is a nutritious food for human beings, acting as good medium for the growth of many microorganisms, International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 6 (2017) pp. 1297-1303 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com