Microbiological Quality and Adulterants of Cattle Milk in Egypt

Soliman, Mona Mohamed Hassan and Abuelnaga, Azza Sayed Mohammed and Abd EL-Razik, Khaled Abd El-Hamid and Kandil, Mai Mohamed and Hassan, Eman Ramadan (2026) Microbiological Quality and Adulterants of Cattle Milk in Egypt. World's Veterinary Journal. 159 - 170. ISSN 23224568

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Abstract

Milk is a rich, highly nutritious food; therefore, it is essential to ensure its purity by eliminating harmful microbes and adulterants that could affect public health. This cross-sectional, laboratory-based analytical study aimed to evaluate the hygienic quality of milk and detect chemical adulterants, with a focus on differentiating buffalo milk from cow milk by utilizing PCR to detect cow and buffalo DNA. A total of 110 milk samples, including raw milk, pasteurized milk, and milk powder from milk shops and dairy companies in Cairo and Giza governorates in Egypt, were collected. The present findings revealed that raw milk exhibited the highest levels of standard plate count (7 � 10� ± 1.7 � 10� CFU/mL), Staphylococcus aureus (1.9 � 10³ ± 2.9 � 10³ CFU/mL), coliforms (2.8 � 10² ± 3.1 � 10² CFU/mL), and Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157 (7.4 � 10 ± 7.8 � 10) and yeast (1.7 � 10² ± 1.7 � 10² CFU/mL), indicating poor hygiene and presenting significant public health concerns. Pasteurized milk and milk powder exhibited superior but variable microbial quality, although mold contamination levels remained consistent across all milk sample types. Sugar, soap, starch, salicylic acid, and formalin were detected at 2, 6, 16, 20, and 6 in raw milk, respectively. Starch was found at 2 and 10 in pasteurized milk and milk powder, and salicylic acid was detected at 10 in milk powder. In the current study, 40 of the raw milk was cattle milk, 50 was buffalo milk, and 10 was mixed milk. In addition, 50 of the pasteurized milk was from cows, 26 from buffalo, and 24 was mixed milk from cows and buffalo. Milk powder was 100 from cows. The current results indicated that although pasteurized milk and milk powder are safer choices, raw milk poses notable chemical and microbiological risks, underscoring the need for stronger regulations to reduce milk contamination. © 2026 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Adulteration; Milk; PCR; Total bacterial count; Total fungal count
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions:	World's Veterinary Journal (WVJ)
Page Range:	159 - 170
Journal or Publication Title:	World's Veterinary Journal
Journal Index:	Scopus
Volume:	16
Number:	1
Publisher:	Scienceline Publication
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.54203/scil.2026.wvj15
ISSN:	23224568
Depositing User:	Dr. Alireza Sadeghi
URI:	https://eprints.science-line.com/id/eprint/1725

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