Comparative assessment on the clean milk production practices of military farm Chattogram and other selected farms of Chattogram district of Bangladesh

Abstract

Adopting clean milk production practices has great potential for increasing the quality of milk production. Therefore, this study was intended to evaluate the current practice of clean milk production in the commercial dairy farms of the Chattogram region and compared them with the one practiced at Military Farm Chattogram (MFC). Current study therefore, enrolled, 30 commercial dairy farms of different categories were randomly selected along with MFC. The management data of these farms regarding housing, cleanliness, hygienic aspects of milking persons and animals; and methods of milk production were collected from the farms by using a questionnaire. The pooled milk samples were collected to perform the physical, chemical, microbial test, and somatic cell count to determine the milk quality regarding clean milk production practice. Results revealed that the hygienic management was better in MFC than in the other selected farms. The presence of coliform bacteria was nil in the milk samples of MFC, whereas it was found in 50% of the milk samples of category A, B, and C farms. The average Somatic cell count (SCC) of categorized farms were 238400±4262, 509800±17229, 538000±19549 and 520000±15179 in the MFC, category A, B, and C farms, respectively (p<0.05). Thus, MFC milk was recorded to be comparativelythe best all tested parameters regarding clean/hygienic milk production and standard dairy production practices.