TOTAL BACTERIAL COUNT, SOMATIC CELL COUNT AND PRESENCE OF AFLATOXIN M1 IN RAW MILK FROM THE “OVČE POLE” REGION, REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Dairy product quality monitoring begins at the farm and ends in the hands of the consumer. Raw milk must also meet other quality standards; it should be free of drug residues, free of added water and free of sediment, contaminants and other abnormalities. In our researches, is taken somatic cells count, the number of bacteria and Aflatoxins as indicators of the quality of raw milk from the Ovče Pole region in the period January-June, 2018. For the needs of this research, an analysis was made of 1320 samples for the presence of bacteria in raw milk, determination of somatic cell count in 478 samples as well as identification and quantification of aflatoxin M1 in 60 samples. The results from this study indicated determination acceptable count of somatic cells in 95.5 % of the samples from raw milk while in 2 samples of raw milk, the amount of aflatoxin M1 was above limits with highest amount of 0.58 mg/kg raw milk. According to European milk quality standards, in the biggest part of the samples (89.55 %), presence of bacteria does not meet the standard. From the analyses made by the milk producers that were the subject of analysis in this research, it can be concluded that they do not adhere to good agricultural practice, the level of milk contamination is high due to poor hygiene, improper handling of milk after milking and insufficient education of farmers for hygiene in primary production