African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 3 (6), pp. 339-342, June 2004
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2004 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Characterization of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Algerian arid zone raw goats' milk

Bettache GUESSAS* and Mebrouk KIHAL

Laboratoire de Microbiologie Appliquée, Faculté des sciences, Département de biologie Université d’Oran BP 1524 El-menaouer Oran 31000 Algérié.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: Bettache.guessas@univ-oran.dz or guessas_b@yahoo.com.

Accepted 24 March 2004

Diversity and density of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Algerian raw goats' milk in arid zones were studied by determination of morphological, cultural, physiological and biochemical characteristics. 206 lactic acid bacterial strains were isolated, with 115 of them belonging to lactic acid cocci and others to the genus, Lactobacillus. The representative species of the total cocci were Lactococcus sp. (76.16%), Streptococcus thermophilus (14.78%) and Leuconostoc sp. (8.6%). The dominating species is Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis. Lactobacilli species found in local raw goats' milk and their proportion were: Lb. curvatus (25.25%), Lb. helviticus (10.98%), Lb. plantarum (9.89%), Lb. reuteri (9.89%), Lb. casei (7.69%), Lb. brevis (5.49%), Lb. bulgaricus (5.49%) Lb. paracasei (4.39%) and  Lb. acidophilus (2.19%).

Key words: Lactic acid bacteria, raw milk, goat, arid zones, identification.