Abstract
As of other dairy animals, dromedary camel could be affected by mastitis, a complex disease occurring worldwide among dairy animals, with heavy economic losses largely due to clinical and subclinical mastitis. Yet, little is known about the occurrence and potential risk factors exposing to lactating camel mastitis in Ethiopia. Consequently, a cross-sectional study was carried out from November 2018 to April 2019 so as to determine the prevalence, associated risk factors, and major bacterial pathogens causing mastitis in traditionally managed lactating camels in Gomole district of Borena Zone. Consequently, 348 lactating camels were examined for clinical and subclinical mastitis, using California Mastitis Test (CMT). The overall prevalence of mastitis was 22.4% (78/348), including clinical 4.3% (15/348) and subclinical 18.1% (63/348) cases, respectively, whereas the quarter level prevalence of mastitis was 16.6% (232/1,392). Of the total 1,392 examined teats, the right hind (RHQ) (4.3%, 60/1392) and left hind quarters (LHQ) (4.3%, 60/1392) were the most frequently infected quarter, whereas the left front quarter (LFQ) (3.9%, 55/1392) was the least infected quarter. Age, body condition score, and lactation stages were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with lactating camel mastitis prevalence among the putative risk factors. Among 312 quarters milk samples subjected to bacteriological examination, 69.9% (218/312) yielded mastitis causing pathogens, both Gram-positive and -negative bacterial isolates, while no growth was observed in 30.1% (94/312) of quarters sampled. Of the bacterial isolates obtained by culturing, Streptococcus spp. excluding Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) (26.1%; 57/218) and Coagulase negative Staphylococci (22.9%, 50/218) were the dominant isolates identified, whereas S. agalactiae (3.2%, 7/218) was the least isolates obtained. The prevalence of camel mastitis in the study area was found to be considerably high. Hence, implementation of integrated approaches has great importance in the study setting for the prevention and control of mastitis so as to improve quality of camel milk, minimize economic loss, and prevent significant public health risks.
Highlights
Of more than 35 million camels in the world [1], Ethiopia has 4.5 million camels and 89% are one-humped (Camelus dromedarius) camels [2, 3]. e camel is a multipurpose animal that has outstanding performance in the arid and semiarid environments where browse and water are limited, and it makes an important contribution to human survival and utilization of these dry and arid lands [3, 4]
Mastitis is an important constraint to milk production in pastoralist camel (Camelus dromedarius) herds in arid and semiarid parts of Ethiopia and a number of reports revealed that mastitis in traditionally managed camels is increasing and likely continues to rise as the milk production per individual camel gradually increases [39]
The prevalence of mastitis at quarter level observed in this study is lower than the reports of Husein et al [5], Almaw and Molla [18], and Zeryehun et al [41], whom reported 25.8%, 20.5%, and 25.6% at the quarter level using California Mastitis Test (CMT), respectively
Summary
Of more than 35 million camels in the world [1], Ethiopia has 4.5 million camels and 89% are one-humped (Camelus dromedarius) camels [2, 3]. e camel is a multipurpose animal that has outstanding performance in the arid and semiarid environments where browse and water are limited, and it makes an important contribution to human survival and utilization of these dry and arid lands [3, 4]. In Ethiopia, camels are mostly kept by pastoralists of Borana, Kereyu, Afar, Somali, Beja, and Rashaida, which cover more than 50% of the pastoralist area in the country [2, 5]. Camel milk is a key food in arid and semiarid areas of the African and Asian countries where camel pastoralists prefer camel milk to other types of milk due to Veterinary Medicine International the fact that it is nutritious, is thirst quenching, is digestible, and can be preserved much longer [2, 4, 7]. Camel’s milk is rich in protein, fat, minerals, and vitamins, especially in vitamin C. e high vitamin C content has significant importance to human diet in dry areas where green vegetables and fruit are not readily available [4]
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