ISSN: 2639-2038
Authors: Yimam TM, Kasse GE* and Yitie MT
A cross sectional study was conducted in Mecha district, west Gojam, Ethiopia from December 2016 to March 2017 to estimate the prevalence of subclinical mastitis and to identify the role of some potential risk factors. A total of 344(225 local zebu and 119 local zebu crosses) lactating cows of smallholder farms were examined. The study was carried out through field screening surveys by the California Mastitis test for each quarter milk sample. The overall prevalence of subclinical mastitis was 21.8%. Subclinical mastitis at cow level based on CMT was high (31.1%) in crossbreds compared to indigenous zebu (16.9%) (P < 0.05). Overall prevalence at quarter level was 7.65% and quarter level subclinical mastitis prevalence based on CMT was 12.6% in crossbreds and 4.99% in local zebu breeds. Of the total1376 quarters examined 16 of them were blind. Among potential risk factors considered, breed and stage of lactation, were found to affect the occurrence of subclinical mastitis significantly (p < 0.05) but age and parity were found insignificant for the occurrence of subclinical mastitis. Ninety Farm owners were interviewed to assess their knowledge and practices towards subclinical and clinical mastitis. Among the interviewed farm owners 99.98 percent of them do not hear of subclinical mastitis but 78.9 percent of them heard about clinical mastitis. The majority of the participants (81.1%, n=73) used to wash their hands before and after milking with water but18.9% (n=17) didn't wash their hands at all while milking the cow. Likewise 87.8% (n= 79) of the participants responded that they didn't clean teats of the animal before or after milking. None of the interviewed farmers use towels and hand milking is a practice by all of the farmers. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis was high in the study area and thereby necessary measures are needed to be taken to prevent further losses.
Keywords: Subclinical Mastitis; Risk Factors; Clinical Mastitis
