Pastoral community practices, microbial quality and associated health risks of raw milk in the milk value chain of Nakasongola District, Uganda

Abstract

The informal milk value chain in Uganda controls most of the raw marketed milk, albeit of poor quality. A study was conducted to assess the milk handling practices, the bacterial quality and the associated health concerns of raw milk along the informal milk value in Nakasongola District. The cross-sectional study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to obtain information from key players. The qualitative data was categorized and presented into emerging themes. Bacterial contamination of 200 milk samples was determined by morphological and biochemical tests. The antibiotic susceptibility test was done by the disc diffusion method. Hand milking was carried out mainly by men (92.5%), and most never or rarely practised hand washing (67.5%) during milking. Milk was mainly delivered to mobile milk-collecting centres located under tree shades (50%). The quality of raw milk was affected by poor hygienic, handling and transportation practices. Most participants (75%) were aware of the dangers of drinking raw milk and the requirements to transport milk in metallic cans. Viable bacterial counts above the recommended limit were recorded in 76 samples (38%) that included Staphylococcus aureus (46%), coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (29%), Escherichia coli (12%), Streptococcus agalactiae (8%) and Salmonella spp. (5%). The overall antibiotic resistance was 45% (34/76), which included resistant isolates of S. aureus (17/34), coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (11/22), S. agalactiae (3/6), Salmonella spp. (2/4) and E. coli (2/9). The raw milk contaminated with antibiotic drug-resistant bacterial pathogens is of public health concern. Thus, measures to improve the quality of milk need to be designed for the pastoral community in Nakasongola district.

Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and Genes of Staphylococci Isolated from Mastitic Cow’s Milk in Kenya

“…Overall, our study showed a high proportion of resistance (71.5%) to at least one antibiotic tested, with no differences between S. aureus (75%) and CoNS (68%). This was slightly lower than reported in other studies in Malaysia (96.15%) and South Africa (90%) in S. aureus and CoNS, respectively [31,32] In contrast, a slightly lower resistance proportion in S. aureus (50%) and CoNS (50%) were reported in Uganda [33]. High resistance levels observed in this study could be linked to indiscriminate use of antimicrobials for treatment of mastitis in dairy cows by farmers and veterinarians [34].…”

“…Low resistance levels to quinolones and chloramphenicol were reported in this study among the staphylococci. Authors in Ethiopia [44], South Africa [32], Canada [7] and Uganda [33] reported similar findings. These critically important human-medicine antibiotics are restricted for use in treatment of animal diseases in many countries, including Kenya [32].…”

“…In contrast, a lower resistance to penicillin in staphylococci (0-20%) has also been reported in some European countries [38,39] and Canada [7]. Higher resistance rates are likely due to the wide-spread use of penicillin in the treatment of mastitis in dairy cows as observed in the study farms and as evidenced by other previous studies in Kenya [27,40] Further, changes overtime, spatial sampling, differences in antibiotic use and practices might explain discrepancies in resistance levels between regions [33,41].…”

“…High resistance levels observed in this study could be linked to indiscriminate use of antimicrobials for treatment of mastitis in dairy cows by farmers and veterinarians [34]. As with many developing countries, in Kenya most of these antimicrobials are cheap and readily available as overthe-counter drugs and can be bought without any veterinary prescription [33]. However, further studies investigating antibiotic use and practices in dairy farms in Kenya are necessary to provide conclusive evidence on the extent which such practices contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance.…”

Hygiene practices and awareness regarding Milk borne diseases (MBD) among dairy workers in unorganized urban settings of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

“…Milk contains a natural inhibitory system or temporary germicidal or bacteriostatic properties which prevents a significant rise in the bacteria count during the first 2 -3 hours (35,36) if cooled to temperature of 4ºC within this period immediately after milking that helps maintain its quality and safety for consumption (9,36). Our study found all the dairy farms to be storing milk at room temperature which is similar to finding of the studies done by Majalija et al(2020) (37) and Neeta et al(2014) (11). Water was found to be the most common adulterant added to milk in our study, similar to study in Kenya (37) and Belgaum (11) while the study in Chandigarh( 16)showed 85.4% not practising milk adulteration.…”