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Page No. : 145-148

ABSTRACT

Bacillus cereus is food spoilage and an emerging foodborne pathogen. It can produce several types of defects in milk e.g. bitty cream, sweet curdling etc. The present investigation was undertaken to study the presence and contamination level of B. cereus in raw milk samples obtained from instructional dairyfarm, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India. B. cereus was isolated from 17 (11.3%) of the 150 raw milk samples analyzed. All the B. cereus isolates were strongly β- hemolytic and motile. B. cereus count in raw milk ranged from 2.2 x 103 to 7.9 x 105 cfu/ml. All isolates showed hemolytic action which indicates their pathogenic nature. It is thus suggested that consumption of such type of contaminated milk without proper treatment can pose a potential public health threat.

Keywords: Bacillus cereus, contamination, gyrB gene, raw milk