ASSESSMENT OF HYGIENIC,QUALITY OF CAMEL (Camelus dromedarius) MILK IN KHARTOUM STATE, SUDAN

This paper had been presented for promotion at the university of Khartoum. To get the full text please contact the other at Ibtisammohamed@hotmail.comA total of 112 individual camel milk samples were collected during the period from December 2004 to June 2005 to evaluate the hygienic quality of raw camel milk in two locations of Khartoum State, Sudan. To achieve this the following microbiological counts were done: total bacterial counts, mesophilic counts, psychrotrophic count, coliform counts, E. colicounts, total Staphylococcus spp. counts and yeast- mold counts. Non-significant differences were reported when comparing the two locations in total bacterial counts, mesophilic counts and yeast- mold counts. Eastern Nile scored significantly (P= 0.05) high coliform counts, E. coli counts and Staphylococcus spp. counts. Of the 112 camel milk samples E. coli, Staphylococcus spp. and yeast- mold were reported in 33 (29.5%), 46 (41%) and 32 (28.6%) camel milk samples, respectively. Moreover, psychrotrophic bacteria were not reported during this study, which can be explained by the lack of cooling facilities among the nomadic communities. Despite of it is been the major stable food for the pastoralists, the overall result obtained from the current study suggested that raw camel milk is of poor quality with presence of great variability among the milk samples regarding the hygienic quality. However, no outbreak causes reported by the consumption of raw camel milk among the pastoralist in Sudan