Scientists find serious bacterial infection in 95% milk samples

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, July 20

Ineffective animal care has been resulting in spread of diseases among them. It came to the fore in a report by the Regional Centre of Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (LUVAS), Uchani. Over 95 per cent of milk samples of cattle and buffalo from Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kaithal, Jind, Panipat, Sonepat districts in Haryana, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Saharanpur and Meerut districts in UP, and Mohali, Patiala and Chandigarh in Punjab were to have serious bacterial infection, indicates the report.

As many as 2,199 samples, including 1,281 of cattle and 918 of buffalo, were received at the centre from July1, 2014, to June 30, 2015. Out of these, 2,093 failed clinical test. Among the failed samples, 1,243 were of cattle and 850 of buffalo. Traces of blood were found in 524 milk samples, said Dr RS Bisla, senior scientist-cum-in charge of the centre.

Dr Anita Ganguly, assistant scientist, said to know the causes of diseases, they had to conduct the California Mastitis Test (CMT) and Culture and Sensitivity Test (CST) of milk. They found several serious pathogenic bacteria, including Strepto Cocci, Staphylo. Cocci and E Colie.

About the causes, he said poor animal care was a major factor. Milking of animals using thumb, medication without consultation, inadequate feeding and fodder practicing and poor supplementation of mineral mixture were resulting in degradation of milk quality.

A study indicates that that maximum loss to the dairy industry was caused due to mastitis and lack of awareness about health management of animals among dairy farmers.