Husbandry Practices and Hygiene in Dairy Farms in Khartoum State, Sudan

Abstract

This study showed that the status of husbandry practices on the hygiene in 60 dairy farms at different areas of Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman, Sudan (20 farms from each town). Information about dairy management was collected by questionnaire and direct interview with farms' owners. The study found that vaccination against diseases were rarely used in regular way. General hygiene and sanitation measures such as dung removal, disinfection, cleaning programs and maintaining minimal contamination during milking process could not be observed in the majority of dairy farms studied except for few farms in Khartoum (20%) and Khartoum North (10%). Also disposal of abnormal milk were done directly in the pens in 83% of the farms. Moreover, testing, isolation and culling practices were not common. The highest numbers of aborted cows at late pregnancy were showed in 1-16 dairy farms in Khartoum and brucella antibodies were detected in 86.67% of the milk samples. Similarly mastitis was prevalence in the farms with cases ranging from 1–5 cases. The present study concluded that the majority of farms were poorly managed, which might create health risk. Hence training programs are needed for dairy farmers and labours on best dairy farming practices such as housing, milking, general hygiene, proper sanitary practices, diseases prevention measures and culling strategy.