Bacterial diversity and lysozyme activity of raw buffalo milk: a case study on milk collection tanks from selected farms

Abstract

Approximately 15% of the milk produced in the world comes from buffaloes. In this study, the microbiome and lysozyme activities of buffalo milk in the Tepecik region were investigated. Samples were taken from ten different farms and analyzed. The average lysozyme activities were 59.858 units × 10−3/mL. Taxonomic analyses showed that Lactococcus, Acinetobacter, Moraxella, Streptococcus, Anoxybacillus, Aeromonas generally constituted the dominant bacterial groups. Low lysozyme activities and Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus values showed that the milk taken from ten farms was mastitis free. The presence of Acinetobacter, Moraxella, Anoxybacillus and Aeromonas bacteria, which pose a pathogenic risk for milk, indicates that proper sanitation of milking machines are required. Pseudomonas, a psychrophilic bacterium, was not detected in most products, but was detected in very small amounts in some products. This work sheds a light on future studies that covers lysozyme activity measurement combined with DNA sequencing for food safety in dairy industry.

Keywords

• Buffalo milk
• next generation sequencing
• lysozyme activity