HYGIENIC PRODUCTION PRACTICES, MICROBIAL QUALITY AND MARKETING OF COW’S MILK IN CHEHA DISTRICT OF GURAGE ZONE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

The objective of the study was to assess hygienic production practices, microbial quality and marketing of raw cows’ milk and milk products. The study was conducted on survey work and laboratory analysis. The survey works involved interview of 180 smallholder milk producers from two agro ecologies in the district while 40 milk samples were collected in the morning from milk producers, small shops, cafes and consumers for laboratory analysis. Majority of the respondents (96.7%) did not have separate cow barn/house and milking area, 57.3% of them clean their barn once and more than once a week. Moreover, milking without hand washing, absence of udder washing, fail to use towel to clean the udder, and use of plastic pail as milking equipment were practiced by 33.9, 52.2, 74.4 and 95.6% of the respondents respectively. Furthermore, higher number of respondents (69.4%) used river/running water as a major source of water for cleaning purpose without proper treatment and majority of them fail to regularly clean utensils with detergents. The marketing system in the district was predominantly informal and milk is channeled from producers to small shops, cafes and to consumers informally, while milk products are sold directly from producer to the consumers at the market. All milk sellers are known to transport milk from producers to market (shops and cafes) on foot and use plastic equipment (81.3%) without any cooling method (62.5%). Fermented milk (ergo), fresh milk, butter, and cottage cheese were marketed (sold) by 2, 8.9, 44.3, and 53.7%, of the respondents respectively. Concerning microbial quality, overall mean total bacterial counts (TBC), Coliform counts (CC) and pH values of milk from current finding were 5.675±0.016, 4.414±0.017 log cfu/ml and 5.963±0.081, respectively. In general, overall quality of milk produced as well as marketed in the study area was poor. This was justified from poor hygienic practices and high values of TBC, CC and pH value which were significantly higher than the acceptable limits. Therefore, adequate sanitary and control measures should be taken at all stages from production to consumer level to produce and supply quality milk.