Thermoduric sporeformers show resistance to the commonly applied thermal treatments and later produce spores during further processing of milk. They survive pasteurization and can cause spoilage defects in dairy foods. The objective of this study was to investigate the application of controlled hydrodynamic cavitation in a continuous mode, and its combination with thermal treatments on the inactivation of thermoduric sporeformers in milk. We hypothesized that the high shear created by the cavitation shock waves and the resulting friction would cause rupturing of the bacterial cell wall, resulting in cell death. Mid exponential phase vegetative cells of Bacillus coagulans (ATCC 12245) were inoculated in sterile skim milk at log 5 cfu/mL. Inoculated milk samples were passed at 60 Hz frequency and 200 L/h flow rate with 120 kPa back pressure, using APV Cavitator (supplied by SPX, Denmark) fitted with 4 row rotor in 6mm housing, resulting in exposure time of 22 s per pass. The inoculated milk at 10°C was recirculated until 6 passes or 6 cavitation effects (a total exposure time of 132 s) with an average inlet and outlet temperature rise up to 68°C and 82°C respectively after the 6th pass. Samples were kept in an ice bath during the treatments for temperature control. For studying the combined effect, post cavitation, samples were exposed to lab pasteurization (63°C for 30 min). Brain Heart Infusion Agar was used to plate the survivors. Experiments were conducted as replicates of 2, and were repeated thrice. Statistical significance of the data was determined using SAS software. A significant reduction (P < 0.05) was observed in the bacterial counts after the treatments. The 6-pass cavitation effect alone, resulted in 1.56 log survivors. Additionally, the combined effect of cavitation and pasteurization further reduced the survivors to only 0.64 log. The results revealed that 6-pass cavitation effect alone and in combination with pasteurization was very effective in inactivating thermally resistant vegetative cells of Bacillus coagulans by 99.963 and 99.996% respectively.