Prevalence of Escherichia coli in raw fresh milk and pasteurized milk produced from farm in Negeri Sembilan / Aimi Nadia Ramli

Milk is an extremely nutritious source of food as it contains colloidal suspension of protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamin and mineral. Drinking raw or undercook milk may harbor the most common foodborne pathogenic bacteria if prepared inexpertly. The aim of this study was to detect the presence and susceptibility level of Escherichia coli towards selected antibiotics. The two types of milk used as samples including raw fresh milk and pasteurized milk were randomly purchased from a local retailer in Negeri Sembilan. Escherichia coli were isolated on Eosin Methylene Blue agar (EMBA) and were confirmed by IMViC test. However, only six out of nine isolates were positive for Escherichia coli, which exhibits a high resistance (100%) towards Vancomycin (Va5). In fact, none of the Escherichia coli isolates were resistant towards Gentamicin (Cn10) and Streptomycin (S10). In addition, the multiple antibiotics resistance (MAR) indices were arranged from 0.2 to 0.4. The presence of Escherichia coli in this study had revealed that there was a high probability of contamination occurred due to the inadequate hygiene condition performed by the farmers while milking, storing and transporting the milk.