Microbial quality of camel's raw milk in central and southern regions of United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The goals of this study were to assess the possible hazards that might occur as a result of consuming camel's milk fresh, un-pasteurized. The study dealt with the microbial quality of camel milk, which includes detection of pathogenic bacteria, enumeration of microorganisms (bacteria-yeast-moulds) that may cause changes to the milk, the distribution of bacteria in camel milk. The microbial quality of camels raw milk was investigated, 50 samples were analyzed for: Aerobic plates count, total coliform, total Staphylococcus aureus total yeast and mold. Sixty eight samples were examined for Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfringens, and Listeria monocytogenus. The results indicated that the mean value of aerobic plate count 1.8x105cfu/ml, mean value of total coli form 6.8x 101, mean value of staphylococcus aureus 1.2x103, yeast mean value 4.1x10-1 cfu/ml. All samples tested for pathogenic were negative for Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfringens, and Listeria monocytogenus, positive for Bacillus cereus, staphylococcus aureus, and Echerichea coli. The distribution of bacteria in camel milk as follow: 43% for gram-positive cocci, 11% for gramnegative cocci, 30% for gram negative rods, 23% for gram positive rods, 32% for staphylococcus, 15% for yeast.