Indigenous knowledge on the practice of milk container fumigation and its effect on microbial safety of milk among pastoral communities in west Guji zone, southern Ethiopia.

Introduction: Milk is a high-risk food and has been implicated in many foodborne illnesses. Thus, the pastoral communities in rural Ethiopia used a traditional practice of milk container fumigation to maintain the quality and safety of milk. Objective: to assess the indigenous knowledge on milk container fumigation practice and its effect on the microbial safety of milk among pastoral communities in the west Guji zone, southern Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted in six randomly selected kebeles of the pastoral districts in the west Guji zone, Southern Ethiopia from December to June/2022. The preservative plants and raw milk samples were collected and transported to the laboratory, to analyze the efficacy of plants on the microbial safety throughout milk storage. A variance analysis was used to compare the means of microbiological growth and pH measure among the treatments and control; while thematic analysis was for qualitative data. Result: Four species of plants, namely: Olea africana, Clerodendrum myricoides (Hochst) vatke, Rhamnus staddo, and Rhus natalensis were identified from the study area; as they were used for fumigating milk storage containers to prevent a contamination of milk. According to respondents, the fumigation of milk containers was practiced by holding the container upside down over the smoke from a burning chip of each plant species. Accordingly, it was demonstrated that the R. staddo has relatively better efficacy in inhibiting microbial growth in milk than O. africana and C. myricoides (Hochst) vatke; while R. natalensis has no significant impact on microbial growth in milk over the storage period. Conclusion: Pastoralists in the West Guji zone were fumigated the milk storage container by using smoke of O. africana, R. staddo, C. myricoides (Hochst) vatke, and R. natalensis plants. As such, it was identified that R. staddo has relatively better efficacy in inhibiting microbial growth in milk than O. africana and C. myricoides (Hochst) vatke; and it is a better plant to be recommended for the preservation of cow milk.