Prevalence of Subclinical Mastitis among Small Ruminants and Isolation of Some Etiological Bacterial Pathogens in Jimma Town, Ethiopia

doi:10.34104/ejmhs.020.01070124

Abstract

Subclinical mastitis in small ruminants is of concern due to the animal welfare, economic, public health, productivity, and livelihood impacts that it may pose. A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2017 to April 2018 in and around Jimma town, Southwest, Ethiopia; to estimate the prevalence of subclinical mastitis, to isolate bacterial pathogens responsible for the occurrence of subclinical mastitis, and to identify risk factors associated with the development of subclinical mastitis in small ruminants. Milk samples were collected from 186 apparently healthy lactating small ruminants, tested on the field with the California Mastitis Test, and samples tested positive were subjected to bacteriological examinations. Out of 372 milk samples collected, 92(24.8%) samples from 70 animals were positive by the California Mastitis Test and these were cultured on different media. Through bacteriological examinations, six isolates of bacteria were identified which include; S. aureus (8.1%), S. epidermidis (10.2%), S. intermidus (2.2%), S. hyicus (1.6%), S. agalactiae (3.2%), and E. coli (12.4%). The highest prevalence of subclinical mastitis recorded was due to Staphylococcus species (22%) followed by E. coli (12.4%) and the least prevalence was due to S. agalactiae (3.2%). The overall prevalence of subclinical mastitis among small ruminants was 37.6%. Age and parity number variations among small ruminants were found important in influencing the prevalence in statistically significant (P = 0.00) extents. The highest prevalence of subclinical mastitis was recorded in old (24.7%) and in small ruminants having >5 parity numbers (24.7%). The high prevalence of small ruminant subclinical mastitis in the study area suggests that intervention strategies their-goal-being prevention and control of subclinical mastitis should be designed; so as to improve the welfare of animals, to save people consuming the milk of small ruminants from zoonotic risks, and to harvest the diverse benefits that may be generated from small ruminant production.

Highlights

Small ruminant production supplies wide range of products and services such as milk, meat, wool, hide and skin, immediate income generation and associated social functions for poor farmers in many parts of Ethiopia (Adane and Girma, 2008)
The overall 37.6% prevalence recorded of subclinical mastitis among small ruminants in the study area was found to closely agree with prevalence reported by Chingwen et al, (2002), who reported the prevalence of SCM in sheep and goats to be between 18% and 34%
The current study estimated a high prevalence of small ruminant subclinical mastitis, occurred due to some bacterial pathogens such as S. aureus, S. epidermidis, S. intermidus, S. hyicus, Str. agalactiae and E. coli with considerable prevalence

Summary

Introduction

Small ruminant production supplies wide range of products and services such as milk, meat, wool, hide and skin, immediate income generation and associated social functions for poor farmers in many parts of Ethiopia (Adane and Girma, 2008). Hayle et al, / European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 2(6), 107-124, 2020 production and productivity and producers’ benefits remain far below to the expectation due to continuously occurring production constraints such as disease, malnutrition, poor animal production system, reproductive inefficiency, management constraints, and general lack of veterinary care Among these factors, disease takes great portions and could be caused by infectious and non-infectious agents (Tibbo et al, 2003). Udder health problem is one of the major diseases posing negative impacts on milk production, milk quality and animal welfare (Seegers et al, 2003).Among udder health problems, mastitis constitutes one of the major problems and is defined as an inflammation of the mammary glands characterized by changes in the physical and chemical features of milk and pathological changes in the glandular tissue often with non-specific and complex factors responsible for its occurrence (Radostits et al, 2007). Subclinical mastitis could be only detected by indirect tests such as CMT, WST, milk SCC and pathogen isolation at laboratory (Ekhlas et al, 2014; Radostits et al, 2007; Uddin et al, 2017)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion