A cross sectional sero-prevalence study was conducted on 1,595 cattle in Jimma zone, Ethiopia to investigate the status of bovine brucellosis and identify potential risk factors. Sera samples were analyzed using Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) and Complement Fixation Test (CFT). The overall individual and herd level sero-prevalences were 3.1% (n = 1,595) and 15.0% (n = 227), respectively. The sero-prevalence of bovine brucellosis at individual animal level was significantly higher in non-pregnant (11.18%) than pregnant (2.77%) and lactating (22.35%) than non-lactating animals (2.46%). Moreover, significantly higher sero-prevalence was observed in herds of larger sizes. Individual animal sero-prevalence was also positively associated with the occurrence of abortion (26.98 and 1.54% in those with and without previous history of abortion, respectively). Generally, the sero-prevalence of bovine brucellosis found in Jimma area was not high and the sero-prevalence was closely associated with some of the risk factors considered at individual animal and herd level.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to measure technical and scale efficiency of public health centers in three districts of Jimma zone, Ethiopia. A two-stage data envelopment analysis was used. First, we estimated technical and scale efficiency of the health centers. In the second stage, institutional and environmental factors were against technical efficiency of the health centers to identify factors associated to efficiency of the health centers.ResultsEight out of the 16 health centers in the study were found to be technically efficient, with an average score of 90% (standard deviation = 17%). This indicates that on average they could have reduce their utilization of all inputs by about 10% without reducing output. On the other hand, 8 out of 16 health centers were found to be scale efficient, with an average scale efficiency score of 94% (standard deviation = 9%). The inefficient health centers had an average scale score of 89%; implying there is potential for increasing total outputs by about 11% using the existing capacity/size. Catchment population and number of clinical staff were found to be directly associated with efficiency, while the number of nonclinical staff was found to be inversely associated with efficiency.

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The study was conducted to investigate the perception of dairy cattle owners on oestrus synchronization and mass artificial insemination services in Jimma zone, south western Ethiopia. Two hundred forty nine dairy cattle owners who had used oestrus synchronization and mass artificial insemination services at least once over the last 5 years time were randomly selected and interviewed from three milk shade districts of Jimma zone. All data were analyzed by SAS version 9.2 (2008). Chi-square (x 2 ) test was carried out to assess the statistical significance among categorical variables. An index was also calculated to provide overall ranking. Majority (73.09 %) of beneficiaries of oestrus synchronization had low to medium perception about the important management practices like selection of appropriate cows/heifers, asking for quality of the hormone being used (expiration date of the hormone), separation of bulls and hormone treated cows/heifers and time/date of insemination after hormone treatment. Consequently, majority (67.47%) of the farmers faced failure of response for hormone treatment at least once. The main reasons for the failure were selection of inappropriate animals (I=0.40), injection of expired or ineffective hormone (I=0.37) and low dose of hormone (I=0.24). In addition, due to lack of awareness, dairy cattle owners had allowed their bulls to graze together with hormone treated cows/heifers. Moreover, the study also revealed that, 64.66 % of dairy cattle owners in Jimma zone were faced failure of mass AI services. The principal reasons for the failure of mass AI services were heat detection problem (I=025), poor quality semen (I=0.23) and distance of AI center (I=0.22). Therefore, in order to enhance the efficiency of the technology and eventually increase the satisfaction of beneficiaries, emphasis should be given on identified problems and concerted effort should be operated from all responsible sectors.

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