Isolation and identification of cultivable lactic acid bacteria from traditional goat milk cake in Yunnan province of China

Abstract

Thirteen goat milk cake samples which were collected from different households in Yunnan province in
China were used for isolation and identification of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The results showed that
LAB and yeasts were the dominant microflora in the samples with the LAB counts in all samples ranged
from 8.32 log10 CFU/g to 10.16 log10 CFU/g. The number of yeasts in most samples ranged from 1.60 log10
CFU/g to 6.15 log10 CFU/g respectively. Seventy-six strains of LAB were isolated from these samples and
identified by conventional and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis methods. The LAB strains were found
to belong to five general and nine different species, among which the ratio of cocci bacteria (96.1%) was
higher than that of rod (3.9%), and was considered to be the major population. The results also showed
that Lactococcus lactis, subsp. lactis (72.4%) and Lactococcus garvieae (10.5%) could be considered as
the dominant groups population in these samples. The obtained LAB pure cultures may serve as
valuable sources for further selection of starter cultures in dairy industry.