Prevalence and etiology of mastitis and related management factors in market oriented smallholder dairy farms in Adama, Ethiopia

Husbandry practices, mastitis prevalence, mastitis causing pathogens and risk factors were studied in 95 smallholder farms in Adama town, Ethiopia. Data were collected by using questionnaire survey, farm visit, animal examination and microbiological investigation of milk samples. Fifty nine percent of the farms were owned by women and the rest by men. For the majority of the households (74.7%) dairying was a sideline activity. However in all smallholder farms animals were permanently housed and stall fed. Sixty two percent of the herds, 48% of the cows and 24.6% of the quarters were affected by mastitis. The prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis was higher than clinical mastitis by 4.5, 6.6 and 9.3 folds, respectively, at herd, cow and quarter levels. Different bacterial species with varying frequency of isolation were identified from mastitic cows' milk samples. CNS was the predominant pathogen representing 21.2% of all the isolates. From the total isolates, contagious mastitis causing organisms (CNS. S. aureus. S. agalactiae, S. dysaglactiae) were more frequently observed than organisms responsible for environmental mastitis (S. uberis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli) Duration of farming, the place of dairying in the household economy, barn hygiene, pervious mastitis incidence, stage of milking mastitic cows and body condition scores were found to be significantly associated with mastitis prevalence (P < 0.05). Determination of mastitis causing organisms and associated risk factors is believed to have considerable importance both for the choice of treatment as well as for devising good farming practice.