Epidemiology Of Bovine Mastitis In Smallholder Dairy Farms In Unguja Island Of Zanzibar, Tanzania

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Bovine mastitis remains to be the most important disease facing smallholder dairy industry in Zanzibar. Direct and indirect cost incurred during the control of clinical cases of mastitis together with prolonged subclinical mastitis reduces quantity and quality of milk produced, and hence, decrease smallholder dairy farmers’ income. This study was conducted to assess the characteristics and farm management practices of smallholder dairy cattle farming system and their relation with milk production, to quantify the occurrence of subclinical and clinical bovine mastitis and to identify their potential risk factors associated with both forms of the disease. In addition, pathogens causing clinical and subclinical bovine mastitis were isolated and tested for antimicrobial resistance. The study was carried out in three districts of Unguja island of Zanzibar in the United Republic of Tanzania. The selected districts were North B, Central and West districts. Two hundred and three farmers with 425 lactating dairy cows were included in a cross-sectional study that used questionnaire interviews and direct observation to assess characteristics of dairy farming. To quantify the prevalence of subclinical mastitis, questionnaire interviews, direct observations, California mastitis test and laboratory analysis were used. Longitudinal study was used to quantify the occurrence of clinical mastitis. It was found that a dairy farmer possesses an average of seven dairy cattle including two lactating cows. Farmers in West district had bigger average number of lactating cows (3) compared to Central (2) and North B (2), the difference was statistically significant (p