Articles Related to MOSH
Occurrences of Dairy Calf Mortality and Morbidity and the Associated Risk Factors in Sululta and its Environs, Central Ethiopia
Calf morbidity and mortality are important causes of economic losses on dairy farms worldwide. A cross-sectional study and clinical observation was conducted from November 2016 to April 2017 with the objective of determining calf morbidity and mortality and to investigate the potential risk factors for mortality and morbidity in Sululta and its environs. A total of 312 respondents engaged in market oriented small holder dairying were interviewed using a structured questionnaire survey about their farm and calf management practices and major calf health problems encountered and diseases that causes mortality. The overall magnitude of morbidity and mortality of calves were 31.0% and 58.37%, respectively. The major calf diseases found were diarrhea (69.34%), pneumonia (16.54%), liver fluke (2.4%), bloat (2.0%), joint ill (2.4%) and other cases (8.04%). Risk factors such as weaning age, breed and awareness of colostrums, feeding of calf and overall farm management were included. In this study 80.3% of calf mortality occurs under age 3 month and 19.42% is above 3 month. Based on laboratory examination, Salmonella and E.coli were detected from diarrheic calves. Salmonella found at rate of 2/29 (3.6%) and E.coli found at only genus level. In conclusion, the magnitude of calf morbidity and mortality found in this study were much higher than economically tolerable level and could greatly affect the productivity of the dairy farms through mainly decreasing the availability of replacement stock and production of milk. It is therefore, suggested that implementation of improved calf and farm management practices and proper environmental protection in the study areas would significantly reduce calf mortality and morbidity.