Journal Article
Milk from goats has uplifted the nutritional standards of many poor households in rural
communities in developing countries. In Tanzania, consumption of milk in these communities
has increased since introduction of dairy goats in 1960s. Nutritional composition including
carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals, and associated and quality attributes are important factors
of milk for human consumption. Also, milk should be obtained from health animals in order to
safeguard the health of consumers. These parameters are affected by many factors including
management, production level, breed, parity and stage of lactation, as well as processing and
handling conditions. We carried out this study to evaluate the composition of milk from the most
famous dairy goats namely Norwegian Landrace (NL), mainly crosses with indigenous Small East
African (SEA) goats which are bred and managed in Mgeta division, Morogoro region, Eastern
Tanzania. We collected 75 milk samples considering various factors. These samples were analysed
for somatic cell count (SCC), crude protein (CP), butterfat (BF), lactose, total solids (TS), solids-
not-fat (SNF), Chloride (Cl) as well as milk density. We obtained averages of each parameter
for each factor and made statistical decision using the general linear model procedures of the
statistical analysis system. Averages for milk yield (MY), SSC, CP, BF, lactose, Cl, TS, SNF and
milk density were 1.32 litres/day, 1.48x105 cells/ml, 3.65%, 4.34%, 4.20%, 0.15%, 12.29%, 7.95%
and 27.98 respectively. Conclusively, values of parameters are within the recommended ranges
and milk from NL goats is good for consumption