BACTERIAL EVALUATION AND PASTEURIZATION OF MILK FROM TRADITIONALLY RAISED WEST AFRICAN DWARF (WAD) GOATS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

Six West African Dwarf goats in their late pregnancies were purchased locally and reared
at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Rivers State University of Science and
Technology, where they later kidded. They were hand-milked and their milk pasteurized
by the local method of heating over firewood. The bacterial quality of the milk was
evaluated before and after pasteurization by plate count, gram stain, cultural
characteristics and biochemical reaction. Lactobacilli, Staphylococci, E coli and Proteus sp
were identified. The bacterial load after local pasteurization was 28.S1% times lower than
in the initial raw milk and 15'h times lower than the usual load acceptable for
conventional milk The local method of pasteurization is therefore both easy and safe for
human consumption, in areas where standard facilities are not available.