Assessment of on-farm milk handling practices in Mbarara District Southwestern Uganda
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Date
2016-01-30Author
Wangalwa, Rapheal
Tolo, Casim Umba
Rugunda Kagoro, Grace
Matofari, Joseph Wafula
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Milk quality has been markedly linked to milk handling practices. In this paper we report on existing milk handling practices in Mbarara district, western Uganda assessed through a cross-sectional survey. A total of 347 dairy farmer households were randomly selected. Results indicated that the main types of milking containers used were plastic (74.6%). The main source of water used during milking was from springs (39.5%). A high proportion (51.9%) of the milking persons did not use any sanitizer when washing hands prior to milking. 58.5% of the farmers washed the udder prior to milking and 22.2% had clean milking area. Only 22.5% of the farmers tested the milk for mastitis and 79.3% of the farmers did not carry out post-milking treatment. Majority (70.3%) of the farmers preserved unsold milk, mainly by boiling. The study also showed a significant positive association between training in milk handling and cleanness of the milking area and milking containers (Somers’ d = 0.492 and 0.500, p = 0.00 and 0.00, respectively). We concluded that training dairy farmers in proper milk handling practices could improve milk quality and possibly alleviate milk post-harvest losses that occur as a result of poor handling.
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