PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE OF COLLFORMS IN RAW MILK AND DOMIATI CHEESE

One hundred random samples of market raw milk and Domiati cheese (50 each) collected from different localities in Cairo and it's suburbs were examined bacteriologially for detection, count, isolation and identification of coliforms.
All examined raw milk samples proved to be contaminated with coliform organisms with a mean value of 38.30 X 10'. On the other hand 33 out of the 50 Domiati cheese samples were contaminated with coliforms with a mean value of 36.98 X 10°.
E.coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Ent. aerogenes, Ent. agglomerance, Ent. gergoviae, Citrobacter amalonaticus, Cit diversus, Cit. freundii, Klebsiella oxytoca. K. ozaenae, K. thinoschleromatis and K. pneumoniae could be identified from examined raw milk and Domiati cheese samples of vorious percentages. The public health importance of isolates has been discussed.