Características microbiológicas de amostras de leite de tanque comunitário / Microbiological characteristics of milk samples from community bulk tanks

ABSTRACT

Microbiological quality of 72 samples of raw milk taken from nine cattle-rearing farms and from 12 samples of milk from a community bulk tank shared by the same farms in Gameleira region, municipality of Sacramento, MG, were evaluated. Mesophilic and psychrotrophic microorganisms were counted. Mesophilic and psychrotrophic microorganisms counts of the 72 raw milk samples from nine farms ranged from 6.2 x 102 to 2.2 x 107CFU/mL and from 3.2 x 102 to 9.6 x 105CFU/mL, respectively. Geometric means of all counts of mesophilic and psychrotrophic microorganisms from the 12 raw milk samples from the community bulk tank of nine farms were 1.8 x 105CFU/mL and 7.4 x 104CFU/mL, respectively. Results showed that community bulk tank may be a great asset for obtaining satisfactory microbiological quality milk.