Importance of milking machine rubberware as a source of bacterial contamination

Abstract

Examination of samples of milk collected at farms whose bulk milk supply was bacteriologically unsatisfactory revealed that the milking machine rubberware contributed from 10.3 to 117.0 times the number of contaminants contributed by the metal parts of the farm dairy equipment.
When the rubberware was in satisfactory mechanical condition and the milk supply was bacteriologically satisfactory, the rubber and the metal parts contributed similar degrees of contamination.