Improvement of hygiene practices and milk hygiene due to systematic implementation of preventive and corrective measures

Abstract

The Total Bacterial Count (TBC) and the Somatic Cells Count (SCC) in the milk are important indicators of its hygiene and quality. Hygienic conditions in barns, milking procedures, udder hygiene before, during and after milking, milking machine hygiene, as well as milk cooling procedures immediately after milking, have direct or indirect influences on milk hygiene indicators. Poor results of milk hygiene quality, when it comes to SCC and TBC, which are often seen in dairy cattle farms in our country, indicate numerous omissions before and during milking. To determine the possibility of improving milk hygiene quality, training of extension service professionals and farmers was conducted, corrective and preventive measures were determined and the achieved state was monitored on 128 dairy farms where SCC and TBC were observed at regular monthly intervals for 6 months. The results showed a continuous statistically very significant improvement in hygienic conditions in barns, milking procedures, udder hygiene before, during and after milking, milking machine hygiene, as well as milk cooling procedures. This has contributed to a statistically very significant improvement in the hygienic quality of milk, both in SCC and TBC indicators, continuously from month to month, with a visible improvement at the end related to the beginning of the study period. At the begining and the end of survey 19.7% and 50.0% of milk samples belong to 1st class of milk quality, respectively, indicating a significant improvement after implementation of corrective measurements.