A field survey was undertaken to collect the health care and milking management practices opted by randomly selected 50 buffaloes farm owners in peri urban areas of Surat city and data were collected by using personal interview schedule. The present study indicated that regular vaccination and deworming practice adopted by 96 percent and 38 percent of the respondents, respectively. Only 20 percent of respondents did not adopted control of ecto-parasites practices. Only 38 percent of respondents treated their sick buffalo by veterinary officer. Majority (58 percent) of respondents did not followed grooming practice to their buffaloes. Sick buffalo isolated from healthy one was adopted by only 12 percent of respondents. All the respondents' clean udder and teats, wash their hands before milking and milked their animals at same place twice a day. Dry hand and full hand methods of milking was adopted by 24 percent and 18 percent of respondents, respectively. The use of oxytocin injection for letdown of milk after death of buffalo calf was adopted by 44 percent of respondents. Wipe the udder and teats after milking, teat dipping, testing for mastitis and teat canal sealing at the end of lactation was not practiced by any of the respondents.

This study focused on finding the critical controlling points in the swamp buffalo milking and storage processes in an intensive farm setting over a 12 months period (between June 2018 and July 2019). The raw milk and pasteurized milk samples were randomly collected once a month for laboratory testing by standard plate count (SPC) and total coliform count (TCC). The model for the investigation and implementation of this study was taken from the dairy cattle industry-which involves similar, though not identical, problems and issues. The first phase of this study was the problem finding phase. The collected raw milk samples showed that both the SPC and the TCC were higher than standard values and both contained environmental bacterial contamination. Escherichia coli contamination was found to be caused by improper hygienic conditions i.e. poor personal hygiene, inadequate techniques and procedures to clean and disinfect the milking equipment and milking area or from after milking issues such as high temperatures during milk storage and transportation. In the problem solving phase, protocols of good hygiene throughout the milking process were suggested and implemented. The collected raw milk and pasteurized milk samples for SPC and TCC decreased to the standard values after hygienic improvements were implemented. The hygiene of the milk workers (such as the hand washing), the lack of staff duty separation and the failure to properly regulate the temperature during, and duration of, the raw milk storage were found to be the critical controlling points of this study. In the follow up phase, the SPC and TCC of the raw and pasteurized milk tested in the standard value range throughout the monitoring period. Our finding suggested that client education and monitoring at least once a month might be necessary in swamp buffalo dairy farms in order to ensure good practices in the milking process. This study could provide guidelines for the development of a hygienic swamp buffalo milk production protocols for private and government farms and as a prototype for future developments in this industry.