Quality of raw milk in Kerman province

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Microbiological and chemical qualities of<br />milk are among the most important issues in public health.<br />OBJECTIVES:Although there are a few published studies which<br />have been conducted in south east of Iran this study was<br />performed to investigate quality of raw milk delivered to a dairy<br />industry company Kerman Province. METHODS:Atotal of 109<br />raw milk samples were collected at the time of delivering to the<br />company. All the samples were transferred to the food lab of<br />Veterinary School for total counting and psychotropic and<br />Staphylococcus aureus counting. The chemical contents,<br />residues of microbial inhibitors and Beta Lactam antibiotics<br />residues were evaluated by Lactostar, Copan kit and Beta star<br />test, respectively, and somatic cells were counted by a cell<br />counter. RESULTS: Based on the comparison with national<br />standard criteria, only 26 out of 109 samples (23.8; 95% CI: 16.2-<br />33.0) were at standard limits in terms of all the factors. Alarge<br />number of out-of-standard sample (50 out of 83), were in contrast<br />with the defined criterion due to low protein. CONCLUSIONS:<br />Classification of the samples based on all the defined criteria<br />without considering protein content showed that the main<br />problem of the milk was its low protein percent.