Prevalence of mastitis in dairy cows from smallholder farms in Zimbabwe

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis and the associated factors in cows from selected smallholder dairy farms in Zimbabwe. Physical examinations were conducted on all lactating cows for evidence of signs of clinical mastitis. Composite milk samples were collected from all lactating cows for bacterial culture and somatic cell counting. Cows were categorised as clinical if they exhibited clinical features of mastitis, or sub-clinical if no apparent signs were present but they had a positive bacterial isolation and a somatic cell count of at least 300 x 103 cells/mL. Farm-level factors were obtained through a structured questionnaire. The association of mastitis and animal- and herd-level factors were analysed using logistic regression. A total of 584 animals from 73 farms were tested. Overall, 21.1%(123/584) had mastitis, 16.3%(95/584) had sub-clinical mastitis and 4.8% (28/584) had clinical mastitis. Herd-level prevalence was 49.3%. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (27.6%), Escherichia coli (25.2%), Staphylococcus aureus(16.3%), Klebsiella spp. (15.5%) and Streptococcus spp. (1.6%) were the most common isolates. In individual cows, pure dairy herds (OR = 6.3) and dairy crosses (OR = 3.1) were more likely to have mastitis compared to Mashona cows. Farms that used pre-milking teat dipping were associated with reduced mastitis prevalence. Further research is needed on the prevalence of mastitis and a comparison of data for both smallholder and commercial dairy farms in all regions of Zimbabwe should be undertaken.

Subclinical mastitis in dairy cows: somatic cell counts and associated bacteria in Mymensingh, Bangladesh

“…Isolation of CNS (10%) is compatible with the results reported in Netherland (10.8%), Sweeden (16%) and Germany (17.17%) (Persson et al, 2011;Schwarz et al, 2010;Sampimon et al, 2009). Although Katsande et al, (2013) and Abrahmsen et al, (2012) reported higher prevalence of CNS (28.7% and 27.6% respectively); these discrepancies may be related to changes in herd management and bacteriological ecology in the herd environment (Pitkala et al, 2004). In this study, the result of isolation of Escherichia coli was almost similar to another study (6.67%) in Bangladesh (Kayesh et al, 2015).…”

“…Another study conducted by Katsande et al, (2013) showed comparatively lower prevalence (16.3%) of SCM in Zimbabwe. Previous studies in different regions of Bangladesh reported that the prevalence of SCM based on California Mastitis Test (CMT) varies from 29% to 37.6% (Islam et al, 2011;Islam et al, 2010) and based on SCC was 55% (Hoque et al, 2015).…”

“…In some cases, high SCC is detected in milk samples without presence of microorganisms and it does not indicate that the gland is healthy (McDougall et al, 2001). However, cows with low SCC can also harbor the mastitis pathogen (Katsande et al, 2013). Therefore, bacteriologic culture is necessary to accurately diagnose the source of the mastitis even though SCC profiles suggest lower probability of SCM.…”

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.…”

“…isolates in cases of subclinical mastitis highlights the insignificant role of this enterobacteria in subclinical mastitis contrary to other reports. [42][43][44][45][46]49 The existence of an oro-fecal transmission cycle has been suggested for K. pneumoniae in dairy herds, with fecal shedding resulting in the contamination of feed and water and the subsequent re-ingestion of the organism, resulting in renewed fecal shedding. 15,[50][51][52] Fecal shedding of Klebsiella spp.…”