Abstract:
Bovine milk is highly nutritious and contains proteins,
lipids, vitamins, carbohydrates and minerals that are
essential for the nutritional requirements of a growing
calf. Owing to these nutritional properties, milk is also a
good growth matrix for a variety of spoilage and
potentially pathogenic microorganisms (Millogo et al.,
2005). Milk is contaminated at different points in the
milk handling process and these can broadly be
categorized as: farm level contamination and during
transportation to markets. At the farm level,
contamination can generally result from improper
cleaning of milking utensil, unhygienic milkers, improper
washing of the cow's udder, use of contaminated water
for washing udder or milking utensils and sometimes the
wagging of the tail by the milking animal (Gleeson et al.,
2009).