Comparative analyses of milk and cheese samples obtained from holstein friesian and bunaji cows

Abstract

Microbiological and biochemical analyses of fresh milk samples collected form nine Holstein-Friesian and three Bunaji (White Fulani)cows under four different treatments (T1 – T4) at Maizube Farms, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria was carried out. Treatment T1 comprised Bunaji breed, while treatments T2 to T4 comprised high, medium and low producing Holstein-Friesian breed, respectively. There were three replicates in each treatment to compare the quality of milk produced by the Bunaji and Holstein-Friesian breeds. Cheese was also produced from the different treatment milk samples to determine keeping quality. Biochemical analysis of the milk samples revealed crude protein, fat and moisture were not significantly (p>0.05) different but the values obtained for total solid and solid not fat were significantly (p<0.05) different. Milk yield was lowest in the Bunaji breed, the highest value being recorded in the high producing Holstein-Friesian breed (T2). The least total bacteria count was recorded from T4, being the low milk producing Holstein-Friesian group. This was followed by T2 (high producers) and T3 (medium producers), while the Bunaji (T1) had the highest. Analysis of cheese samples revealed bacterial and fungal counts of between 0.00 – 7.62 x 107±0.59 x 107 and 0.00 – 4.24 x 107 ±0.66 x 107 CFU/g respectively. Various bacteria species identified included Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniea, Bacillus subtilis, Tuberculosis bacilli, while the yeast species identified on cheese samples were Candida tropicalis, Candida torulopsis and Torulopsis datitila. The results showed that milk yield of indigenous Bunaji cows was very low compared to the temperate breed. Bacteria count in milk samples obtained from local breed of cattle was higher than in milk samples obtained from the Holstein cows. However, no bacterial and fungal growths were observed on cheese samples obtained from the Bunaji breed. It is recommended that high sanitary measures should be observed to reduce contaminations in milk and cheese samples.

Keywords: Milk, Cheese, Bunaji, Holstein-Friesian, bacteria, fungi