Abstract
Understanding the intentions of dairy farmers towards mastitis control is important to design effective udder health control programs. We used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the intentions of North-Western Ethiopian dairy farmers towards implementing non-specified mastitis control measures (nsMCMs) and towards implementing 4 specific MCMs. Face to face interviews were held with 134 dairy farmers to study associations between their intentions and any of three factors (attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) that, according to the TPB, determine intentions. The majority of the farmers (93%) had a positive intention to implement nsMCMs, whereas a smaller majority of farmers had the intention to implement the specific MCMs to improve udder cleaning (87%), to improve stall hygiene (78%), to improve feeding of cows (76%), and to perform foremilk stripping (74%). Farmers had a more positive attitude, but lower subjective norm and lower perceived behavioural control towards implementing nsMCMs compared with implementing most specific MCMs, although the subjective norms for stall hygiene and perceived behavioural control for improving feeding of cows were also low. Attitude was positively associated with intentions to implement nsMCMs, to improve cleaning of the udders, to improve stall hygiene and to implement foremilk stripping. Both the intention to improve udder cleaning and to implement foremilk stripping, were positively associated to subjective norms towards these MCMs. Our data can help tailor intervention programs aiming to increase the intention of Ethiopian dairy farmers to implement MCMs and thus to improve udder health in this country. We show that such programs should primarily focus on changing attitude and secondarily on improving the farmers’ subjective norms.
Highlights
A remarkable increase in milk production is seen in African countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and Namibia [1]
Subjective norms are determined by beliefs about how other people, who may be in some way important to the dairy farmer, would like him to behave and the motivation to comply with these referents
With respect to perceived behavioral control (PBC), farmers scored very high for 3 out of 5 mastitis control measures (MCMs), but the percentage of farmers positive for PBC was very low for nonspecified mastitis control measures (nsMCMs) and for improving feeding of cows compared to the percentage of farmers positive for PBC in other MCMs
Summary
A remarkable increase in milk production is seen in African countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and Namibia [1]. Market infrastructure and increasing populations in combination with urbanization have led to the intensification of dairy farming around urban areas [1,2]. Level of education Membership to dairy association Herd size Experience of dairy farming Knowledge whether mastitis exists Training about dairy cows management Experience of mastitis in own farm last year. Male (107) 50 years (77) 8 grade (65). Perceived behavioral control had no association with any of the background factors. TPB factors ATd level No. Improving cleaning of the udder Gender Yes 2.43 (1.07–5.53) SNe Female Ref. Male
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