Abstract

SMALL DAIRY FARMS MANAGEMENT FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH BULK TANK SOMATIC CELL COUNT IN KARARY LOCALITY, SUDAN

Elniema A. Mustafa*, Amal Elsamani Ibrahim Ahmed, Iman M. Hamad and M.M.O. Elhassan

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 41 (N= 410 cows) randomly chosen small dairy farms in four administrative units with the objective of quantifying the association between herd management factors and Bulk Tank Somatic Cell Count (BTSCC). Both farm hygiene and cow body cleanliness were assessed, while milk SCC was used as an indicator of milk quality. For the assessment of farm hygiene, a structured questionnaire contained 53 factors known to affect SCC was constructed and tested on one farm from each administrative units to measure its clarity. For the assessment of cow body cleanliness a random sample of 410 lactating cows were chosen. The assessment of individual body cleanliness was carried out once a month for two consecutive months on all selected farms. The hygiene of the cows was evaluated during milking and was based on visual cleanliness scores by independently evaluating 4 areas of each animal's body: the legs, flanks, abdomen, and udder. For milk BTSCC milk samples were collected in "once month" for two consecutive months from the 10 randomly selected lactating cows for each unit with a total of 82 samples. Awareness session’s was conducted for the farmers about farm hygiene a week before sample taking. The study revealed that more than half of the farmers 21(51.2%) had special clothing for milking purposes and only 7.3% of them wore gloves during milking. Twenty six (63.4%) of farmers washed their hands and arms before milking and only 9.8% of them dried them after washing. Pre-dipping and post dipping practices were not found in any farm. In this study mastitis was prevalent in 32 (78%) of the farms, while only 9 (22%) were free of it, with no significant difference (P≤ .877) among them. The average milk BTSCC during the first and second months was found to be 124.4 (cells × 103) and 74.8 (cells × 103), respectively across investigated farms with no significant differences (p> 0.05). As regard to the averages (mean±SE) of cleanliness scores evaluated for each cow, 43.1% of cows were found clean, 40% were dirty and 16.9% were very dirty. No statistically significant differences (p>0.05) were found between the cleanliness scores and SCC during first and second months. Farms had cows with hoof problems had significantly reported elevated SCC during the first and second months (29.4%; 33.3%), respectively (p<0.05), while those with cows that had retained placenta incidences had reported significantly elevated SCC level (35.3% and 42.3%) during the first and second month. In conclusion, this study had shown that no significant association between various management practices adopted on dairy farms and herd SC counts was found.

Keywords: Dairy Management Factors, Mastitis, SCC, Cow Cleanliness.