Prevalence of different pathologies of Girolando dairy cattle reared in the semi-improved breeding system at the Kpinnou breeding farm in Benin

Abstract

Milk production is struggling to take off in Benin despite the importance of the cattle population and the presence of imported cattle known for their milk production, such as the Girolando. The present study aimed to determine the different pathologies that limit the milk production of Girolando cows at the Kpinnou Breeding Farm as well as the treatments applied in these cases. These cattle are raised in a semi-intensive system, benefit from barns and are fed mainly on natural pasture with a supply of food supplements. During the year 2019 studied, all cattle on the breeding farm were infested with ticks of the species Rhipicephalus microplus, with an average of 822 ticks per animal. Every quarter, ticks were searched throughout the body, removed by hand and stored in a container containing 7% formalin. The other pathologies encountered were lumpy skin disease, trypanosomiasis and dermatophilosis which affected 29%, 7% and 4%, which affected 29%, 7% and 4% of the herd of 107 animals respectively. The diseases that specifically affected the milk production of the 34 lactating cows were mastitis (12%), milk fever (12%) and agalactia (6%). Commercial acaricides are used to control ticks and antibiotics are administered to cattle for lumpy skin disease and mastitis. The objective of this work is to identify bovine pathologies and diseases in Girolando in the last three years, in order to define action priorities and to implement preventive actions upstream.