Dairy utensils as a source of contamination of raw milk in dairy farms

A total of 50 random samples of the equipment rinses were collected from two different dairy farms, in order to assess the hygienic condition of farm dairy equipment, and were examinedbacteriologically.The mean total colony count/ml of the rinse was 4.55 X 109 + 2.26 X 10 9, while the mean count/ft2 of the examined utensils and equipment was 3.97 X 1011 + 1.61 X 1011; 84 % of the examined dairy utensils and equipment were considered heavily contaminatedThe mean thermoduric count/ml of the rinse was 3.9 X 105 + 2.82 X 10 5, while the mean count/ft2 of the examined utensils and equipment was 2.7 X 107 + 2.01 X 107; 96% of the rinsingsamples were considered with high thermoduric counts.The higher percentages of isolated thermoduric organisms were met with; Streptococcus spp., Micrococcus spp., and Bacillus spp., while the other isolates; Coryneforms, Alcaligenes spp. and Moraxella-like spp. were isolated in lower percentages.The mean psychrotrophic count/ml of the rinse was 1.84 X 109 + 1.59 X 109, while the mean count/ft2 of the examined utensils and equipment was 1.31 X 1011 ..:!: 1.13 X 1011,96% of the rinsing samples were considered with high psychrotrophic count.