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The study was conducted to assess the general milk production system, handling practices, processing, utilization and marketing system of raw cow milk produced in Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench Districts. A total of 270 respondents (thirty respondents from each study area) were selected using simple random sampling technique and interviewed by using a semi structured questionnaires. The results of current study showed that the respondents of Shey Bench and Debub Bench were entirely (100%) engaged in farming activities, predominately mixed production system. Similarly, majority (82.2%) of the respondents of Mizan Aman were also pre-dominantly involved in mixed crop livestock production while the remaining 17.8% were involved only in Peri-urban production system. Majority of the respondents in the three districts (91.1, 100 and 90% of Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench) had dairy cows from 1 to 5, some had from 6 to 10 and 11 to 15. About 95.6, 94.4 and 78.9% of the respondents in Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench use plastic buckets for milking. As reported by most of the respondents (95.6, 58.9 and 55.6% of Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench districts, respectively), clay pot is used for storage of milk until the wanted amount is accumulated for processing. About 60.0, 26.7 and 20.0% of the respondents utilize raw milk or fresh milk in Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench districts, respectively. Majority of the respondents (97.8, 92.2 and 70.0% in the Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench districts) reported that scarcity of milk is the main problem of milk and milk products marketing in the study areas. The common milk production constraints and prioritized by the sampled farmers were shortage of feed and scarcity of land, diseases, accessibility to marketing place, limitation of market information and inadequate infrastructure. Therefore, it was concluded that the majority of the milk produced in the study areas were not processed, marketed and mainly utilized by household family for home consumption. These suggest the need for enriched dairy cattle production scheme in the study areas.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of mastitis in bovines and to, isolate and identify the major bacterial pathogens of lactating cows in six selected woredas of Bench Maji Zone of Southwestern Ethiopia from June 2017-October 2017. Three hundred eighty four lactating cows were examined for mastitis by combination of udder physical examination, California Mastitis Test and subsequent bacteriological isolation. During the study period, 116 (30.21%) cows had mastitis, of which 35 (30.17%) and 81(69.83%) showed clinical and subclinical mastitis, respectively. The prevalence rates of mastitis in cross breed and local breed cattle were found to be 71.43 and 28.65%, respectively. Based on parity, higher prevalence (45.45%) was recorded in cows which had greater than 5 parturitions and the lower prevalence (13.04%) was recorded in cows with 1-2 parturitions. Based on lactation stage, the prevalence was (45%) in late stage, followed by middle stage (36.60%) and early stage of lactation (13.85%). The prevalence rates of mastitis based on different age groups of lactating cows were found to be 48.78 , 30.54 and 18.52% in cows of greater than 8 years old, 4-8 years old and in cows less than 4 years old, respectively. Except parity, the other associated risk factors (breed, lactation stage and age group) had significant association (P<0.05) with the prevalence of mastitis in the study animals. Upon subsequent bacterial culturing, the quarter milk samples yielded three types of bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus (59.26%), Streptococcus agalactiae (38.27%) and Escherchia coli (2.47%) were the major isolates. In conclusion, the overall prevalence of mastitis in lactating cow of the study area was high and this suggests the need of improved hygienic practices and applies different methods for prevention and strategic control of the disease.

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