Major Reproductive Health Problems in Small Holder Dairy Farms in and Around Durame Town, Southern Ethiopia - Abstract
The present study was conducted in and around Durame Town from October 2017 to June 2018 with the objective of estimating the prevalence of reproductive health problems in dairy cattle. Cross-sectional study design was carried out to collect data from a total of 401 dairy cows which were selected by using systematic random sampling techniques. The overall prevalence of clinically observed major reproductive health problems was 61.35%. Body condition score of animals, management system, and age of animal showed statistically significant association with the occurrence of overall reproductive health problems (P< 0.05). The common specific reproductive health problems occurred at the study area were anoestrus (34.66%), repeat breeding syndrome (19.20%), dystocia (8.48%), retained fetal membrane (10.47%), metritis complex (4.24%), abortion (3.49%), uterine prolapse (2.49%) and stillbirth (1%). The study findings also revealed that the status of brucellosis among dairy cows of the study areas was very low and occurred with prevalence of 1.25% (0.82 -3.07%) at individual level. Extensive management system, use of communal water points and age of animal were found to be the risk factors for Brucellaoccurrence (P< 0.05). Other factors such as breed and breeding methods did not show significant association with Brucella seropositivity (P>0.05). Further statistical analysis made to know status of association between Brucella seropositivity and occurrence of reproductive health problems, showed that there was no statistically significant association among brucellosis and occurrence of reproductive health problems. This could be attributable to low level of Brucella prevalence and this may suggest that some other etiological agents are responsible as precipitating the reproductive disorders rather than brucellosis.