Cleaning procedures and cleanliness assessments of bucket milkers and suckling buckets on Japanese dairy farms

摘要

Cleanliness of milking equipment is known to be important for the safety of dairy products and to prevent the spread of diseases among cows. We investigatedthe cleaning procedures of milking equipment and suckling equipment on Japanese dairy farms, and the cleanliness of bucket milkers, suckling buckets, milkreceivers, and bulk tanks, using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence test. Bulk tanks (except one bulk tank) and milk receivers were washed byautomated cleaning, but all bucket milkers and suckling buckets were washed by manual cleaning. Detergents were often not used to clean bucket milkers andsuckling buckets. The log10 transformed relative luminescence units (LRLU) of equipment washed by manual cleaning was higher than equipment washed byautomated cleaning. Clean surfaces (≤2.2 LRLU) were only observed on the bulk tank and the milk receiver. More than 50% of the LRLU of the mouthpiece, therubber packing of claw, and the nipple of the suckling bucket were determined dirty. These results suggest that the cleanliness of the bucket milkers and thesuckling buckets washed by manual cleaning was lower than that of the equipment washed by automated cleaning, and may be due to insufficient cleaningprocedures.