Chemical composition and microbial quality of cow milk in urban and peri urban area of Dangila town, Western Amhara Region, Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Dangila district, Awi Zone of the Amhara regional state to determine the microbial quality and chemical composition of raw milk in the urban and peri urban of Dangila town.. For chemical composition and microbial quality laboratory analysis milk from 30 farms, 15 from urban and 15 from peri urban were collected and analysed. General Linear Model (GLM) of Statistical Analysis System (SAS) was employed to analyse the chemical composition and microbial quality data. The local or indigenous breeds in the study area are fogera breeds and unidentified indigenous zebu breeds while the cross breeds are unidentified local breed X Holstein Friesian breeds with different blood level. The mean protein, fat, total solids (TS), solids-not-fat (SNF), and ash contents of local cows’ milk produced in the study area were 3.34% ,4.17, 13.48 ,9.31and 0.72%,while these values were 3.71%, 4.38%, 13.87%, 9.49% and 0.71% for cross bred cows, respectively. Ash content did not showed significant difference between urban and peri urban. The overall mean of total bacterial count, coli form count and yeast and mould count of milk produced in the study area were 6.14±0.72log10cfu/ml, 2.72±0.50log10cfu/ml and 0.68±0.41log10cfu/ml. Yeast and mould count showed significance difference while coli form count and total plate count are not significantly different between urban and peri urban. High microbial counts both in urban and peri-urban farms were observed as compared to the recommended international standards therefore, further work is needed to improve microbial quality of milk and milk products in the study area.