Hygienic status of raw milk adulterated with added water in El-Beheira governorate

Milk is known as a full diet because it includes the essential elements needed for growth, development and body maintenance, such as proteins, fat, sugar, minerals and vitamins. However, it has been noted that milk also could be considered as a vehicle for pathogenic microorganisms. Milk likely to be intentionally/unintentionally polluted at different production, manufacturing and marketing stages. Therefore, the following study was conducted to ascertain the prevalence of zoonotic Y. enterocolitica in raw milk and to evaluate the risk effects of milk adulteration with addition of water with an emphasis on the quality of this water that might be used in the adulteration process. Raw cow milk samples were gathered randomly from different households at El-Beheira province, Egypt and subjected to some chemical and microbiological investigations. One hundred and thirty-two raw milk samples and 53 water samples were randomly collected from the same source. The results showed that the isolation rate of Y. enterocolitica from the milk samples was 8.3%. The percentage of milk fraud by water addition was 52.8%. Our findings suggested that milk contaminated and adulterated by water addition could be a potential source for many zoonoses. Also revealed high adulteration percentage of milk with addition of low hygienic quality water that represents a great health hazard in addition to poor nutritional quality.