ASSESSMENT OF BIOSECURITY STATUS IN DAIRY COW FARMS OF HARAR AND DIRE-DAWA, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Biosecurity plays an irreplaceable role in preventing diseases and increasing productivity on farm. Assessment of biosecurity measures applied in dairy farms of Harar and Dire Dawa carried out to assess the relationship between the application of biosecurity measures and the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of owners and farm characteristics.The main objective of this study was to investigate biosecurity status in dairy farming and factors influencing biosecurity on dairy farms in the Harar and Dire Dawa, eastern part of Ethiopia. Chi-square analysis of the obtained results showed that there was a significant association between the application biosecurity measures and location of farms .Out of 125 biosecurity practices considered to evaluate the biosecurity compliance of study farms, the biosecurity score of dairy ranged from 34 to 75. The percentage of the biosecurity score varied from 27.2% to 60%. From the 20 dairy farms included in the present study nine farms gained a percentage of score greater than or equal to 50% (ranging from 50.4% to 60%).%), thus their biosecurity compliance was evaluated as “Good”. The remaining 11 farms attained a percentage score lower than 50% (varying from 27.2% to 46.4%) and therefore graded as “Poor.”.In This study biosecurity categorized in to four components, isolation (19.25± 3.92), sanitation (16.65± 6.83), traffic control (16.95± 2.5) and health management (3.25± 1.07) with their respective mean ± and standard deviation of each components. From ten dairy farms located in Harar town, only one (10%) evaluated to have “Good” biosecurity level. On the other hand, from ten study dairy farms of Dire Dawa town, eight (80%) were evaluated to have “Good” biosecurity adoption level.