SURVEY OF MASTITIS IN DAIRY HERDS IN THE ETHIOPIAN CENTRAL HIGHLANDS

Abstract

Prevalence of mastitis amongst dairy herds (n=725) and cows (n=2681) of Addis Ababa milk shed was investigated. California Mastitis Test
(CMT) was conducted on milk samples from individual quarters. Of 10,908 quarters examined, prevalence of clinical mastitis (SCM), nonfunctional or blocked quarters (NFBQ) and subclinical mastitis (SCM) were 1.2%~ 3.8% and 38.9%. respectively. Subclinical mastitis had highest relative occurrence (88.1 %). Prevalence of quarter SCM was over 40% in Urban (n=5402) and Peri-urban Dairy (n=2454), and 25.1 % in Dairy Herds Intra-urban of the Secondary Towns (n=2334) and the same increased with the herd size. On cow basis, prevalence
of SCM was 18.7% and washigherin crossbred (n=2287; 21.3%) than with zebu (n=397; 4.3 %). Significantly more SCM occurred in parity two and above (n=1978; 20.6%) than those in first parity (n=699; 13.2%) but this did not increase with lactation number. Over 87 % of CMT reactions were scores distributed between Score 1 to 3, and were suggestive of infection. It was concluded that SCM is highly and widely prevalent. As it is economically damaging, the need to establish diagnostic faCility to be able to early detect and screen large number of samples is emphasized and further work on identification of causative agents is recommended.