Incidence of Escherichia coli in Raw Cow's Milk in Khartoum State

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to estimate the incidence of opportunistic pathogen, E. coli, in raw cow's milk in Khartoum State (Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman). Hundred raw milk samples were randomly collected from different localities/sources of Khartoum State and were inoculated on the relevant bacteriological media. Confirmation was performed using a series of biochemical tests. The results revealed that 63% of the samples were E. coli positive. The highest numbers of milk samples contaminated with E. coli were obtained from Khartoum north vending shops and Khartoum milk vendors. From twenty samples 9, 10 and 12 contaminated samples were detected from Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman farms respectively with contamination with Coliforms ranging between 3.86±0.1 and 4.18±0.01 and E. coli between 3.53±0.1and 3.93±0.01. Although, fresh cow milk samples collected from milk vendors and milk vending shops were contaminated with almost the same load of Coliform bacteria 4.11 and 4.01 log10 cfu/mL, but the count of E. coli ranged from 3.54-3.90 log10 cfu/mL. The highest mean value of coliform was found in milk from Khartoum farms with15.0 x10 4 cfu/mL, while the lowest mean count of 3.857±0.02 log10 cfu/mL was detected