Thirty women from Keerambur, Sengattupatti and Venkadathanur village were imparted hands on training on clean milk production through demonstration of cleaning the udder with potassium permanganate solution before and after milking.
This 10-day training programme for women SHG members was sponsored by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Shalom Foundation. The training included dairy farming, clean milk production, fodder production and value added milk products preparation.
D. Solomon Paul Jayaraj, District Development Manager, NABARD and R. Muthu Rathinam, Branch Manager, Union Bank, Keerambur, inaugurated the programme recently.
Clean milk production through hygienic management of udder was emphasised during the programme by M. Babu, Head, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) Training and Research Centre, here.
Mastitis, the inflammation of the udder in dairy cows is one of the major causes for huge economic loss for the dairy farmers and it is mainly due to the entry of pathogens through the teat orifice in an unhygienic atmosphere. Milking without washing the udder may result in mastitis. Further most of the dairy cows are milked by milkmen who seldom wash their hands before milking cows due to paucity of time and knowledge, Dr. Babu said.
In fact most mastitis cases are due to transmission of pathogens through unhygienic hands during milking. This practical problem could be solved by washing the udder with a disinfectant solution preferably by five per cent potassium permanganate which acts as germicide, he added.
K. K. Marimuthu, Managing Trustee, Shalom Foundation, also spoke.
The rural women trainees were also taught about the causes and treatment of mastitis apart from maintaining the udder clean as far as possible to produce clean milk. The women expressed confidence to adopt this simple technology.
