Assessment of Cow’s Milk Hygienic Practices Under Small Scale Farmers in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Assessment of cow’s milk hygienic practice under small scale farmers of West Harege were undertaken to assess the management routines and hygienic practices of cow’s milk at small-scale dairy farmers in west Harargae Zone, Oromia National Region State of Ethiopia. From two districts representing highland and mid altitude, proportionally 12 rural kebeles were randomly selected. From each selected rural kebeles, ten farmers were purposely selected. A total of 120 small scale farmers were interviewed by semi-structure questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 software.The study indicated that respondents of Gemechis representing the highland mostly (71.43%) used housed barn type house where as Chiro district respondents representing mid altitude were mostly (63.16%) used fenced barn type house. Teats cleaning before milking practice were reported by 51% of Chiro district farmers and 49% by Gemechis respondents. All 100% respondents of both districts were washed their hands before milking and about 50% of utensils cleaning performed after each usage in both districts. 50% of the respondents of Chiro and Gemechis (50%) used Ejersa for utensil smoking with frequency of prior to milking 47% in Gemchis districts. Respondents of Chiro district were used utensil smoking frequency 73% once a day. 68% of Chiro district respondents mix fresh milk and left over milk and 77% of Gemechis district did not mix them. 80% of respondents in Chiro district were discard milk of drug treated cows and the withdrawal periods (100%) was up to five days. In both districts, Mastitis was the major diseases reported by the respondents. Shortage of grazing land (93%) and disease (75%) were the major challenge/constraints of respondents in Chiro and Gemechis district respectively. 86% access to road and 60% suitable weather condition were the major opportunities for dairy cattle production in Chiro and Gemechis district respectively. Therefore, it suggested that microbiological analysis of milk and its product from the point of critical control Hazard Analysis, practical based trainings and identifying chemical content of utensil smoking plants (Ejersa /Olea Africana ) in the study areas. Keywords: Milk, Hygiene, Ejersa /Olea Africana