Morbidity and Mortality Rates of Boer and Central Highland Goats at Ataye Crossbreeding Program Research Site: Non-parametric Survival Analysis and Piecewise Exponential Model

Abstract

Non-parametric survival analysis and piecewise exponential model (PEM) was used to estimate prevalence and incidence of goat mortality, to identify major clinical causes of morbidity and mortality related disease, and to investigate animal and environmental related risk factors affecting goat mortality at Ataye boer goat breeding and evaluation research site. A total of 671 kids and 347 adult (yearling) age goats were used for the analysis of non-parametric survival and piecewise exponential model for survival, mortality incidence rate and causes of morbidity and mortality analysis. The mortality incidence rate of kids and adult goats were 0.638 and 0.302 per animal year respectively. The 25th, 50th and 75th percentile of survival time of kids were 5, 157 and 1,274 days respectively and of adult goats were 280, 828 and 1,557 days respectively. The present mortality rate is relatively larger than reports of boer cross breeding and evaluation research sites in Ethiopia as well as goat mortality prevalence abroad. Gastro-intestinal related diseases, pneumonia, weak kid, agalactia, mismothering and hear water (cowdriosis) were most important causes of mortality. Constant piecewise exponential regression analysis of risk factors indicates that breed, kid birth weight (BWT), doe post-partum weight (PPWT), birth type, birth year and precipitation variables were associated with (p-value < 0.05) kid mortality rate. Pure boer kids compared with CHG cross boer goat, are 2.505 times at higher probability of mortality (p ≤ 0.001). A 1 kilo gram increase of kid birth weight and dam PPWT reduces mortality probability by 32.5% (p-value ≤ 0.001) and 6.4% (p-value ≤ 0.001) respectively. Twin birth kids are1.512 times higher rate of mortality (p-value = 0.001) compared with single born kids. A one-millilitre increment of 15 days average precipitation significantly reduces kid mortality by 7.8% (p-value ≤ 0.001). Fleshing of does during early meeting to improve the post-partum weight of does and kids is also important to reduce both kid and doe mortality at and after kidding. Immunization of new introduced and kids to common endemic diseases in the area, extensive control of ticks to breakdown heart water transmission and use of proper comfortable housing to reduce stress of goats is recommended. Improving nutrition particularly during scarce grazing and browsing feed availability is important to improving the health and reducing mortality of goats in intensively managed goat farms.

Risk Factor Analysis and Genetic Parameter Estimation for Pre-Weaning Mortality Traits in Boer, Spanish, and Crossbred Goat Kids

“…This is consistent with previous studies that showed the Boer breed had poor survival rates compared to other breeds in different countries and regions. For example, Tesema et al [37] and Tessama et al [38] reported that the Boer breed had higher mortality rates than the local Ethiopian breeds. Harrison [39] showed that Boer and its crosses with Kiko had higher mortality rates compared to purebred Kiko breed in the US.…”