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Bacterial contamination of raw milk in smallholder dairy farms in northwestern Algeria | ||
| Iraqi Journal of Veterinary Sciences | ||
| Volume 40, Issue 3, July 2026, Pages 631-636 PDF (532.53 K) | ||
| Document Type: Research Paper | ||
| DOI: 10.33899/ijvs.2026.171419.4721 | ||
| Authors | ||
| NASSIMA BOUHROUM* ; Lankri Hassen; Boudour Khedidja | ||
| CHLEF UNIVERSITY | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Raw milk production in smallholder dairy systems remains a major challenge for food safety due to inconsistent hygiene practices that easily lead to bacterial contamination. This study investigated the distribution of important pathogenic bacteria Klebsiella spp.and Escherichia coli in small dairy farms located in northwestern Algeria. The main objective was to understand whether contamination levels are mainly influenced by differences between farms or by the biological characteristics of the bacteria themselves. Aliquots of bulk tank milk were collected aseptically over a 20-day period and analysed using selective culture media for bacterial isolation and enumeration. The effect of the farm of origin, the bacterial species and their interaction on the bacterial load was evaluated using a two-way ANOVA with data log10 transformed. Comparisons between the farms were conducted using the Kruskal–Wallis test. The results showed that bacterial counts were very similar across the three farms, with no significant differences detected between them for any of the studied species. Statistical analyses, confirmed that the “farm effect” was not significant. In contrast, a clear and significant difference was observed between bacterial species, indicating that the type of microorganism plays a more important role in determining contamination levels than farm-specific management practices. Overall, the findings suggest that contamination in this context is not strongly dependent on individual farm conditions, but is more closely related to the ecological behavior of each bacterial species. This highlights the need for broad, system-wide hygiene strategies rather than farm-by-farm interventions to improve raw milk safety in smallholder dairy systems. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| bacterial contamination; dairy hygiene; Escherichia coli; Klebsiella spp | ||
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