Food Science and Quality Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-6088 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0557 (Online) Vol.35, 2015 17 A Review on Microbiological Quality of Ethiopian Raw Bovine Milk Mulugojjam Adugna 1 * Aleme Asresie 2 1.College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Department of Biology, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia 2.College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Department of Animal Sciences, Adigrat University, Adigrat, Ethiopia *Email of corresponding author: mgojjama@gmail.com Abstract This paper has reviewed researches that obtained from peer-reviewed literature published within 2000 to 2014 on microbiological quality of raw bovine milk in different parts of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has the largest livestock production in Africa. 83% of milk is produced from cow and the left is from camel and goat. Almost all cattle in the country is local breeds and during 2013 cow milk production potential of the country was about 2.9 billion liters, the average lactation period per cow is estimated to be about six months, and average milk yield per cow per day is about 1.37 liters. Samples of raw milk produced and/or transported to consumers in different parts of the country showed that almost all microbiological counts was above the international accepted standard level (>10 5 cfu/ml and >10 2 cfu/ml for AMBC and Entrobacteriaceae/coliform counts, respectively) and different pathogenic (spoilage) bacteria have identified, it is probably because of problem related with health of milking cows, poor production and handling practices, and contaminants from milking environment. Therefore, awareness creation about quality milk production and good handling practices produced, transported until consumption is necessary; the concerned body shall control quality of milk regularly and also set standard for microbial quality. Keywords: Bovine; Ethiopia; microbes; quality; raw milk Introduction Ethiopia has the largest livestock production in Africa; CSA (Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia) (2014) stated that the total cattle population of the country in 2013 was estimated to be about 55.03 million. Out of this total cattle population, the female cattle constitute about 55.38% and the remaining 44.62% were male cattle, from this 6,675,466 and 10,731,656 were dairy and milking cows, respectively. On the other hand, the result indicated that 98.71% of the total cattle in the country were local breeds. The remaining were hybrid and exotic breeds that accounted for about 1.15 and 0.14%, respectively. A total cow milk production for the country during 2013 was about 2.9 billion liters with the average lactation period per cow is estimated to be about six months, and average milk yield per cow per day is about 1.37 liters. Cows are common sources of milk (83%) in Ethiopia and the left 17% is from camel and goat (USAID, 2010). In the country households consume 82.9% of the milk collected (produced), 10% of the milk is processed into products with longer shelf life, 6.61% is sold and 0.43% used for wages (CSA, 2009). Estimates according to USAID (2010), showed that Ethiopian per capita milk consumption was 17 liter. Raw milk, complete nutritious fluid, is an ideal medium for the growth of various types of microbes. It might be a vehicle for the transmission of a wide range of pathogenic microbe diseases. The common bacterial diseases that can be transmitted through consumption of milk that produced from diseased cows and handled with poor hygienic practices are including tuberculosis, typhoid, brucellosis, diphtheria and anthrax. In terms of economic point of view due to untreated raw milk is highly perishable, it has short shelf life and may cause wastage or/and poor quality product production (Fernandes, 2008; Pandey and Voskuil, 2011). Even if milk produced from mammary gland of healthy mammals is sterile fluid (Fernandes, 2008), contamination of microbes starts from udder of milking animal, poor milking practice, milking environment (contaminated air, excreta of animals), milking utensils, poor handling practices (lack of treatment like cooling with refrigerator, appropriate heating and others) and lack of cold chain transportation and storage system until table for consumption (Robinson, 1990). Even if Ethiopia has the largest livestock production in Africa, most of its milk production and handling practice is poor. Therefore, the intention of this paper is to review research results that obtained from peer-reviewed literature published within 2000 to 2014 in different parts of Ethiopia on microbiological quality of raw bovine milk. Microbes load in raw bovine milk The mesophilic microorganism is one of the general and extensive microbiological indicators of food quality, indicating the degree of freshness, improper handling temperature and sanitation control during processing, transport and storage, it can also suggest the presence of bacterially produced enzymes (Hayes and Boor, 2001;