Quality of milk from Norwegian dairy goats bred and raised in Mgeta Division, Morogoro Region, Tanzania

Abstract

Milk from goats has uplifted the nutritional standards of many poor households in rural communities in developing countries. In Tanzania, consumption of milk in these communities has increased since introduction of dairy goats in 1960s. Nutritional composition including carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals and associated quality attributes are important factors of milk for human consumption. Also, milk should be obtained from health animals in order to safeguard the health of consumers. These parameters are affected by many factors including management, production level, breed, parity and stage of lactation, as well as processing and handling conditions. We carried out this study to evaluate the composition of milk from dairy goats namely Norwegian Landrace (NL), mainly crosses with indigenous Small East African (SEA) goats which are bred and managed in Mgeta division, Morogoro region, Eastern Tanzania. We collected 75 milk samples considering various factors. These samples were analysed for somatic cell count (SCC), crude protein (CP), butterfat (BF), lactose, total solids (TS), solids-not-fat (SNF), Chloride (Cl) as well as milk density. We obtained averages of each parameter for each factor and made statistical based on analyses which were performed general linear model procedures of the statistical analysis system. Averages for milk yield (MY), SSC, CP, BF, lactose, Cl, TS, SNF and milk density were 1.32 litres/day, 1.48x10⁵ cells/ml, 3.65, 4.34, 4.20, 0.15, 12.29, 7.95 and 27.98% respectively. Conclusively, values of parameters were within the recommended ranges and milk from NL goats is good for consumption.