Prevalence of clinical and subclinical mastitis and quality of milk on smallholder dairy farms in Tanzania

Abstract

A cross sectional study was conducted during October and November 2006 on 69 smallholder dairy farms with lactating cows in Mvomero and Njombe districts Tanzania, to determine the prevalence of mastitis and to assess the milk quality on the study farms. Clinical mastitis was investigated using clinical changes of udder and milk at animal level. Cow-side California Mastitis Test (CMT) and microbiological cultures were used to assess subclinical mastitis at quarter level. Milk quality was determined on bulk milk samples at herd level using alcohol and acidity tests, butter fat content, total solids, ash content as well as Delvotest® for antimicrobial residues. Overall prevalence of clinical mastitis at herd level in both districts was 21.7 % (n = 69). Based on CMT, prevalence of subclinical mastitis at animal level was 51.6 % (n = 91). Prevalence of bacterial isolates at animal level was 35.2 % (n = 91) while for fungal it was 16.7 % (n = 90). Based on CMT results, prevalence of subclinical mastitis at quarter level was 30 % (n = 353), while for bacteria and fungi it was 16 % and 6 % respectively. Contamination of milk with antimicrobial residues was 4.5 % (n =67). The milk quality parameters for most of the milk samples were within acceptable levels. Findings in this study have demonstrated high prevalence of subclinical mastitis that may contribute to low productivity of dairy cattle in both districts. About 20 % of CMT subclinical cases had no involvement of microbial pathogens that suggested the need for minimal interventions with antimicrobial agents. These findings call for use of udder disinfectants and improved milking hygiene as intervention strategies to control mastitis on the smallholder dairy farms in Tanzania

Phenotypic, antimicrobial susceptibility profile and virulence factors ofKlebsiella pneumoniaeisolated from buffalo and cow mastitic milk

“…4,24,32,33 By contrast, Klebsiella mastitis outbreaks are only occasionally reported in Europe, 34,35 although a high rate has been reported in a study from the Alps in France (92%). 36 Our low prevalence rates are closely related to the findings in Canada 37 and significantly lower from several other global surveys on the prevalence of Klebsiella intra-mammary infections in Europe, Asia and South America 38-41 which have reported values ranging between 33.5% and 45.0 % and in Africa [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] which have reported a prevalence of 15-16%. The absence of Klebsiella spp.…”

Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in Lactating Cows with Subclinical Mastitis and their Antibiogram in Organized Dairy Farm, Maharashtra, India

“…In contrast to present study, several reports (de Medeiros et al, 2009;Hussein, 2012) of very high quarter wise prevalence of subclinical mastitis were recorded. Higher prevalence rate (36.36% and 21.7 %) was also reported by Islam et al, (2011) and Mdegela et al, (2009), respectively. These differences in the prevalence of subclinical mastitis are perhaps due to difference in managemental and hygienic practices adopted in different dairy herds.…”

A systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence of subclinical mastitis in dairy cows in India

“…Subclinical mastitis, however, does not show any signs, therefore it usually becomes unnoticed. Both clinical and subclinical mastitis affects milk production; however, subclinical mastitis is relatively more prevalent than clinical mastitis (Seegers et al 2003;Mdegela et al 2009). Average reduction in milk yield due to clinical and subclinical mastitis was estimated to be 50 and 17.5 %, respectively (Joshi and Gokhale 2006).…”