Abstract:

Milk and milk products are among the most consumed food products all over the world.
However, ensuring that milk consumed by humans especially in developing countries is of the
best quality without adulterations is still a problem. In Uganda there are few documented studies
that quantify drug residues in milk. A study to establish the presence of antibiotic residues in raw
milk samples was carried out in March 2015. The study aim was to establish and quantify
presence of antibiotic residues in milk from two pastoralist sub counties in Kiboga district. Fifty
one milk samples, including 47 on-farm samples and four samples from community bulk milk
collection centres were randomly collected from Kapeke and Bukomero in Kiboga district. The
milk samples were collected using sterile Bijou bottles and at the same time, a structured
questionnaire on factors associated with presence of residues in animal products was
administered to participants. The milk samples were analyzed for residues of 3 antibiotics
namely Gentamycin, Oxytetracycline and Amoxicillin by high performance liquid
chromatography (HPLC). The questionnaires were analysed using SPSS version 20. All the three
antibiotics were detected in the milk samples. All samples from the bulk milk collection centres
were found positive with Oxytetracycline and Amoxicillin, while 25% were positive for
Gentamycin. From the individual farm milk samples, 59% were positive for Gentamycin, 74%
for Amoxicillin and 100% for Oxytetracycline. The mean concentration of the antibiotics were;
Gentamycin (0.098±0.098), Amoxicillin (0.173±0.125) and Oxytetracycline (0.35+0.1).
However, concentrations of all the three types of antibiotics residues in milk were found to be
below the recommended limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO) in milk. The
factors that were associated with the occurrence of drug residues in milk included; non
observance of drug withdraw periods, lack of records, lack of knowledge of the grazing system
and the number of milking animals. The government should enforce legislations regarding use of
antibiotics to avert the likely side effects of such antibiotics in the milk value chain.