On Wednesday, January 21st, 2009, Ahmed Elsmoslemany will be defending his dissertation in the AVC lecture theatre “A” from 8:30-9:30 AM. 

The seminar is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD). Following the seminar Mr. Elmoslemany will be examined by leading scientists in the field including; Dr. Kathy Gottschall-Pass (Chair, UPEI), Dr. Jeffery Lewis (UPEI), Dr. John VanLeeuwen (UPEI), Dr. Bhushan Jayarao (Pennsylvania State University) and Dr. Pamela Ruegg (University of Wisconsin).

A brief summary of the thesis topic is presented below:

The association between bulk tank milk analysis for raw milk quality and on-farm management practices.

Bacteria in raw milk can affect the quality, safety, and consumer acceptance of milk and dairy products. This study was conducted to investigate the association between on-farm management practices and raw milk bacteriological quality.

Bulk tank milk (BTM) quality was evaluated biweekly in all PEI dairy herds over a two year period using total aerobic (TAC), preliminary incubation (PIC), laboratory pasteurization (LPC), and coliform (CC) counts. Data on risk factors were collected through a mail out survey and a case-control study. The mail out survey covered 4 main areas: general farm demographics and management, cow cleanliness and hygiene, milking procedures and mastitis control, and equipment maintenance and cleaning. The case-control study included observation of basic management practices, evaluation of equipment hygiene and coolingefficiency, and scoring of cow and environmental hygiene.

Descriptive data showed weak correlations among the bacterial counts. Additionally, all counts had moderate to high coefficient of variations. Finally, all bacterial parameters tended to be low in winter.

The results from risk factors studies indicated that TAC and PIC were mainly associated with cow and stall hygiene (stall hygiene score, amount of dirt on the teat prior to udder preparation, udder hygiene score, udder hair clipping, teat end cleanliness after udder preparation, and method of premilking udder preparation). The LPC and CC were related to equipment hygiene (wash solution temperature, alkalinity, water hardness, and frequency of acid washing).

In conclusion, the work presented in this thesis indicates that TAC, PIC, LPC, and CC counts are of considerable value for identifying practices that could influence milk quality. Using multiple bacterial tests that estimate specific groups of bacteria in BTM is required to get a more detailed picture on hygienic practices employed on the farm during collection, handling and storage of BTM. Finally, assessment of hygienic quality of raw milk in a herd should rely on several measurements of each test and not on a single value.