Prevalence study of Salmonella spp. in milk and milk products

The present study was carried out to observe the presence of Salmonella in milk and milk products. The investigation of 210 samples revealed presence of 7.61% Salmonella spp. with higher prevalence in raw milk and dahi - 11.9% each , followed by ice-cream -9.52% and khoa - 4.76%. None of the sample of flavored milk showed Salmonella. In molecular study, 5 (31.2%) isolates were found positive for invA gene. The gene was present in raw milk - 18.75% and 6.25% in khoa and ice-cream each. Salmonella isolates were found sensitive to netillin - 100%, ofloxacin - 87.5%, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid – (62.5% each), streptomycin and amikacin – (56.2% each). The isolates were resistant to nitrofurantoin- 81.2%, tetracycline -75.0%, co-trimoxazole - 68.7%, ampicilline - 56.2% and cefotaxime - 50.0%. The observation displayed unhygienic atmosphere prevailing during production of dairy products which lead to contamination of Salmonella and thus may cause public health problem to the consumers.