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Abstract

A method is disclosed for conditioning samples (of e.g. milk or meat) containing fat globules and somatic cells and/or protein particles before they are subjected to fluorescence measurements in order to determine the bacterial content, as well as methods for performing the determination of bacterial content in such samples. The conditioning method involves the treatment of the samples with an ion-chelating agent, a proteolytic enzyme, detergent, and a bacteriologically specific fluorochrome such as ethidium bromide. Detergent is used in a concentration resulting in substantially no dissolution of the fat globules and the conditioned samples thus loses insignificant amounts of fat globules. The assessment of fluorescence is preferably performed in a conventional flow cytometer. As no separation of fat globules is necessary, the methods are simple and fast. The bacterial determinations have proved reliable when compared to standard methods.

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