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 were 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 was 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 nonobservance 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.