Lingathurai S, Vellathurai P. Bacteriological quality and safety of raw cow milk in Madurai (South India). Bangladesh J Sci Ind Res. 2013;48:109–14. Moderate mastitis : Changes in the udder are detectable as well as changes in the milk. These changes can occur slowly or rapidly. There may be small systemic changes such as reduction in feed intake. Daka D, G/silassie S, Yihdego D. Antibiotic-resistance Staphylococcus aureus isolated from cow’s milk in the Hawassa area, South Ethiopia. Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. 2012;11:26. Argudín MÁ, Mendoza MC, Rodicio MR. Food poisoning and Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins. Toxins. 2010;2:1751–73. Yilma Z. Microbial properties of Ethiopian marketed Milk and Milk products and associated critical points of contamination: an epidemiological perspective. Epidemiol Insights. 2012. https://doi.org/10.5772/31595.

Vairamuthu S, Sinnai J, Nagalingam K. Factors influencing production of hygienic raw milk by small scale dairy producers in selected areas of the Jaffna district, Sri Lanka. Trop Anim Health Prod. 2010;42:357–62. The first is easier than the second. Mild mastitis can often disappear in a few days with no treatment or with massage and hand stripping of the quarter. However the bacteria may still be there. The same process may also occur after antibiotic treatment, particularly short courses with short milk withholds. Getting a visible cure without a complete bacteriological cure may result in an increase in subsequent clinical infections and a permanently raised SCC. O, Solbu H, Refsdal A, Roalkvam T, Filseth O, Minsaas A. Results and evaluation of thirty years of health recordings in the Norwegian dairy cattle population. J Dairy Sci. 2007;90:4483–97. The hygiene of the cows was evaluated based on the visual cleanliness scores described by Schreiner and Ruegg [ 39]. Evaluation was performed in the legs, flanks, abdomen, and udder of each animal. Score 1 (VC) indicates very clean, score 2 (C) indicates clean, score 3 (D) indicates dirty, and score 4 (VD) indicates very dirty. Farms were considered clean if the number of milking cows with cleanliness scores of VC and C were equal to or more than 50% of the total milking cows in the herd and taken as dirty if the number of milking cows with cleanliness scores of D and VD were equal to or more than 50% of the total milking cows in the herd. Udder scoring followed the scoring system described by Schreiner and Ruegg [ 39], where score 1 was free of dirt, score 2 was slightly dirty (2–10% of surface area), score 3 was moderately covered with dirt (10–30% surface area) and score 4 was covered with caked on dirt (> 30% of surface area). Enumeration of contaminating bacteria

TBC was enumerated on plate count agar (HiMedia Ltd., Mumbai, India) according to ISO 4833:2003 [ 41], while CC was counted on violet red bile agar (HiMedia Ltd., Mumbai, India) according to ISO 4832:2006 [ 42] using the pour plate method in both cases. One hundred microliters of serially diluted milk was aseptically withdrawn from each dilution using a micropipette and plated using 15–20 ml plate count agar and violet red bile agar, which were kept at 47 °C in a water bath. After thorough mixing by rotating, the plated samples were allowed to solidify and incubated aerobically at 30 °C for 48–72 hrs and 24 hrs for TBC and CC, respectively. Ganda EK, Gaeta N, Sipka A, Pomeroy B, Oikonomou G, Schukken YH, Bicalho RC. Normal milk microbiome is reestablished following experimental infection with Escherichia coli independent of intramammary antibiotic treatment with a third-generation cephalosporin in bovines. Microbiome. 2017;5:1–17. Al-Qumber M, Tagg J. Commensal bacilli inhibitory to mastitis pathogens isolated from the udder microbiota of healthy cows. J Appl Microbiol. 2006;101:1152–60. Yes, it sure is! The pH level of our moisturisers is balanced to 5.5, which is similar to human skin. Essentially, pH can be measured from 0 to 14 depending on how acidic or alkaline a substance is. Since our skin sits at a pH of about 5.5, it’s slightly acidic. Healthy skin can retain moisture, maintain a robust microbiome and keep irritants away. We of course want to support this, so using creams that are pH balanced to match our skin is one of the best ways to do this. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted to assess factors that thought to influence the hygienic quality of bulk milk. Farm owners were interviewed on their personal information, herd size, whether dairying primary income, experience in dairying in years, training on hygienic milk production, use of warm water and/or detergent for milk utensil cleaning, use of warm water for teat washing, smoking of milk utensils, raw milk consumption habits and education level. When an activity had been performed by a hired laborer or a family member other than the farm owner, they were interviewed on that specific activity. For example, activities such as milking, and cleaning practices. Data on factors such as hygiene of the barn/cows/udder/milkers, hygiene of milk utensil, cow shade roof type, material of milk utensil, premilking udder preparation practices and milking procedures were collected by observation. The questionnaires were conducted face-to-face during the milking procedure. To avoid variation among individuals, the questionnaire survey was conducted by the first author of this paper (AD). The questions were originally written in English and translated into Afaan Oromo or Amharic languages when administered. Cow and udder hygiene scoring

Kuehn JS, Gorden PJ, Munro D, Rong R, Dong Q, Plummer PJ, Wang C, Phillips GJ. Bacterial community profiling of milk samples as a means to understand culture-negative bovine clinical mastitis. PLoS ONE. 2013;8:e61959. Asiimwe BB, Baldan R, Trovato A, Cirillo DM. Prevalence and molecular characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin resistant strains, isolated from bulk can milk and raw milk products in pastoral communities of South-West Uganda. BMC Infect Dis. 2017;17:1–8. OPEDC. Oromiya Planning & Eonomic Development Commission. National Regional State of Oromiya. Physical and socio-economic profiles of 180 districtsof Oromiya Region. 4th Ed. Finfinne; 2016. The univariable linear regression analysis showed that age of the farm owner ( P = 0.036), age of the milker ( P = 0.043), barn cleanliness ( P = 0.000), cow cleanliness ( P = 0.000), udder cleanliness ( P = 0.000), milker’s personal hygiene ( P = 0.001), milk utensil hygiene ( P = 0.000), cow shade roof type ( P = 0.245), season ( P = 0.000), smoking of milk containers ( P = 0.241), and the use of warm water for teat washing ( P = 0.003) were significantly associated with TBC.

Bomar L, Brugger SD, Yost BH, Davies SS, Lemon KP. Corynebacterium accolens releases antipneumococcal free fatty acids from human nostril and skin surface triacylglycerols. mBio 7(1):e01725-15. Hayes MC, Ralyea RD, Murphy SC, Carey NR, Scarlett JM, Boor KJ. Identification and characterization of elevated microbial counts in bulk tank raw milk. J Dairy Sci. 2001;84:292–8.