Handling Practices of Raw Cow’s Milk and Major Constraints of Clean Milk Production in and around Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

The consumption of raw cow’s milk and its derivatives is common in Ethiopia, which is not safe from consumer health point of view as it may lead to the transmission of various diseases. The milk handling practices and different constraints that affect milk quality in different production systems were identified to take corrective measures. The data were collected from 212 respondents randomly selected respondents. Descriptive statistics was employed to summarize raw milk handling practice, hygienic quality of equipment. Pair-wise ranking technique was used to identify and prioritize the major milk quality related constraints. The result of the study revealed that, the milking methods of dairy farmers was hand milking with milking frequency of twice (90.1%) and once (9.9%) a day. On the other hand, only 28.3% of households were found practicing cleaning of the milking barn. There was statistically significant difference between milk producers who wash their hands before milking (85.8%) than that of milk producers who do not wash (14.2%) their hand before milking. Besides, this study revealed that, only 36%, and 23.1% of dairy producers washed udder and teat in urban and peri-urban production systems, respectively. Majority (85.9%) of milk producers weren’t practicing drying udder and teats after washing whereas, only 14.1% milk producers were practicing to dry udder and teats with individual towel (4.7%) and common towel (9.4%). Significant number of milk producers (47.8%) and (68.8%) used gourds as milk storage equipment in peri-urban and rural area, respectively while plastic container was dominant (84%) in urban production system. In this study, it was observed that lack of potable water as a major bottle neck that hampered milk quality (index=0.167), followed by lack of knowledge (index=0.153), poor hygienic condition (index=0.116) and absence of quality based payment system (index=0.11). Generally the hygienic practice during milk production in the study area was poor and milk handling practices were also vulnerable for contamination. Moreover, traditional milking container (Kell) and storage utensils (Kabo) were dominantly used in the area.