Impact of Bacterial and Somatic Cells Content on Quality Fresh Milk in Small-Scale Dairy Farms in Kosovo

Milk is often described as a complete food because it contains adequate amounts of protein, fats, sugars, vitamins and minerals. And it is a complex biological fluid that has an important place in human nutrition no matter if produced on commercial or small-scale farms. For milk produced on a small scale dairy farms can easily get contaminated by bacteria due to poor hygienic conditions maintained at “on farm” levels or due to inadequate handling, storage and transport conditions, the basic goal of this research was to determine the impact of the presence of bacterial (CFU) and somatic cells count content (SCC) in quality of fresh milk in some small cattle farms in Kosovo.

The survey was based on existing standards for milk quality in Kosovo placed under administrative guidance MA-no. 20/2006. The study was based on fresh milk analysis of 150 farms performed during the period September-December 2012, which was obtained in 9 different localities (collection points) of the Kosovo.

The study revealed that CFU and SCC in fresh milk were significantly affected by a number of factors, such as sampling period (repetition), locality, breed, and time of sampling (evening or/and morning). According to the results for CFU and SCC, there were big differences between the farms (milk collection points) included in the study (P < 0.0403) and (P < 0.0293). The results showed that small size breed like Busha and its crosses tended to be less exposed to SCC/mL in milk (72.840) and (293.592), compared to Black Holstein (613.462), Simmental (521.519) and Brown Swiss (418.44). Milk produced in evening tended to be of better quality (259.854 CFU/mL) compared to the one from morning milking (576.689 CFU/mL). Fresh milk quality analyzed in the third repetition was better for about 33.3% compared with the repletion first. For CFU and SCC, the analyses showed that about 74.7% and 64.7% of milk produced belonged to extra quality, while lower quality of milk of category three was 12.0% and 23.3%, respectively.

All in all, considering that about 85% of milk produced in Kosovo came from small-scale dairy farms, this study set out that small-scale milk production system cannot be neglected by interest parties in dairy sector and needed permanent following-up and improvement.

Article by Hysen Bytyqi, et al, from Kosovo and Norway.

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