Assessment Of Raw Milk Microbial Quality And Survey Of The Occurrence And Evaluation Of The Public Health Risk Of Escherichia Coli In Raw Milk From Small-Scale Integrated Backyard Cattle Farms In Western Romania

The survey was undertaken to investigate the microbial quality and the occurrence of Escherichia coli bacterial strains, as well as to evaluate their human infective potential, in a total of 54 raw milk samples collected from different small-scale integrated backyard cattle farms, located in five counties (Arad, Bihor, Caras-Severin, Hunedoara, and Timis) of Western Romania. A total of 51.9% (28/54) of the examined food matrices expressed higher total aerobic plate count (>5 log(10) CFU/ml) than the one provided as the maximum admitted value by the EU legislation in force. E. coli was isolated from 24 (44.4%) samples. Results of molecular survey highlighted the presence of stx2 gene in eight (33.3%) of the isolated E. coli strains, but none of the screened samples were positive for eltA, estI, estII and stx1 virulence genes, responsible for encoding of toxin synthesis. Our findings indicate the microbial quality of the raw milk in the screened area can represent a potential public health risk.