Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence for hygiene testing of rubber liners and tubes on dairy farms

Prevention of biofilm formation in milking equipment is important to ensure good hygiene quality of raw milk. Key factors to achieving good results are a successful cleaning procedure and a method to check the cleanliness of milking equipment surfaces. Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence is a fast and easy method for investigating bacterial contamination of surfaces. However, previous studies on the potential of ATP bioluminescence to assess the hygiene status of milking equipment have been hampered by lack of a validated test procedure. The aim of this work was therefore to establish a test procedure for assessing the cleanliness of milking equipment using ATP bioluminescence, and apply the method on-farm to study the hygiene status of aging rubber material in milking equipment. In developing the test procedure, the effects of sampling location in tubes and liners, sampling of dry versus wet barrels, milking point in the parlor, and acid or alkali detergent on ATP values were investigated. The results showed that, to obtain reproducible results, replicate sampling from the same milking points in the parlor is important. For milk tubes, samples should preferably be taken from the milk meter side, for liners on the inside of the barrel. For best results, sampling should be performed after use of alkali detergent. No beneficial effect was observed of sampling dry liner barrels, so sampling in the standardized test procedure is performed directly after cleaning. The standardized test procedure was used on 3 different commercial farms and sampling was initiated after replacement of old rubber parts. On one of the farms, additional sampling was performed to evaluate total bacteria count and determine the association with ATP level. The results suggest that, provided an efficient cleaning procedure is used, the hygiene quality of milking equipment can be maintained during the recommended lifetime of the rubberware. However, due to occasional variation in cleaning efficiency between milking points and liner barrels, random sampling on single occasions can lead to incorrect conclusions. Replicate sampling over time is therefore important for correct interpretation of ATP bioluminescence data. If ATP levels are very high, complementary sampling for total bacteria count should be used to verify that the level is due to bacterial contamination, and not other organic ATP-contributing material (e.g., milk residues).