The study determine the association between some of managements and milking practices with bacterial counts in dairy herd among small holder dairy farmers of Mbeya and Mbozi districts of Mbeya, Tanzania. A cross-sectional study was conducted with theaim of assessing housing structures, condition and management, milking procedure and milk handling in the study area. A total of 192 raw milk samples were collected from farmers herds with at least one lactating dairy cow. Samples were tested for total bacteria count (TBC), total coliform counts (TCC) and total staphylococcus counts (TSC) using standard procedures. All respondents practiced hand milking and 96.9 of the respondents washed hands before milking.About 57.8 of the respondents used same towel to dry the udder of all milking cows in the herd per milking time. Furthermore, 42.2 of the respondents used individual towel for drying udder and teat None of the respondents used pre milking, post milking dipping or dry cow therapy. Milk from cowskept in barns made from concrete floor had (p<0.00l) lower TBC and TSC. Frequency of cleaning of dairy barn (p<0.05) influenced the TBC, TCC and TSC. Lack of fore milking (p<0.05) associated with higher TBC. Furthermore, water source (p<0.05) influencedTBC and TCC. Milking practices which includes washing of hands, udder and teat, dry of teats using individual towel per cow and followed by fore milking yielded (p<0.05) lower bacterial count than other practices. Similarly, cow barns whose floors were made from concrete and cleaned twice or more daily had clean cow which produce milk with lower bacterial counts than cows kept on floors made from timber and soil.The results reveal the need for training farmers in good agricultural practices.This would contribute to achieving better quality milk, and ensure the sustainability of the sector in the study area.
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