Prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis in dairy farms

Red Chittagong Cattle: An Indigenous Breed to Help Tackle the Challenges of Modern Animal Production Systems

Modern livestock selection is rapidly condensing the indigenous cattle gene pool. This trend limits the options for future genetic selection to benefit both animal well-being and farmer challenges. Here we reveal the potential of Red Chittagong cattle (RCC), a native genotype of Bangladesh, for tackling these current and pending challenges. Red Chittagong cattle are reddish in color and small in size with mature bulls and cows weighing 342 and 180 kg from birth weights of 16 and 14 kg, respectively. Whilst low mean levels of milk production of 618 L across a 228-day lactation are recorded so are high levels of milk protein (3.8%) and fat (4.8%) with offered feed types typically low in nutritive value, particularly crude protein. However, one in five cows under farm condition yield >1,000 L/lactation. Alongside high levels of milk protein and fat, other key features of this breed include resistance to common diseases and parasites with a high level of adaptation to agro-ecological conditions. As opposed to other indigenous breeds, there is currently high genetic variation in the RCC population, and associated variation in productive and reproductive traits highlighting the opportunity for development through long-term breeding programs alongside improved management conditions. Such efforts would enable this breed to become a global resource for tackling the challenges of modern animal production systems. In addition, further work is required to reveal the demographic distribution of the breed, potential production levels through the provision of improved diets and the mechanisms enabling disease resistance and digestibility of feeds.

Global and countrywide prevalence of subclinical and clinical mastitis in dairy cattle and buffaloes by systematic review and meta-analysis

In the present study, subclinical mastitis (SCM) and clinical mastitis (CM) prevalence for various countries in the World were calculated by using online and offline databases. The SCM and CM prevalence studies reported during 1967-2019 were collected, reviewed, and a meta-analysis was done in R-Software. A total of 222 and 150 studies from the World and 103 and 37 studies from India on SCM and CM, respectively were included. The pooled prevalence of SCM and CM were 42% [Confidence Interval (CI) 38-45%, Prediction Interval (PI) 10-83%] and 15% [CI 12-19%, PI 1-81%] in the World respectively, 45% [CI 40-49%, PI 11-84%] and 18% [CI 14-23%, PI 3-60%] in India respectively. Continent-wise analysis indicated a higher prevalence of SCM in North America and CM in Europe and among the countries, a higher SCM prevalence in Uganda and CM in the United Kingdom was observed. Further, species-wise indicated a higher SCM and CM prevalence in buffaloes of the World than the cattle. Based on method-wise, SCM and CM prevalence were high in somatic cell count and clinical examination, respectively in the World. The SCM prevalence was higher than CM and indicated the importance of SCM in dairy cattle. This might result in low milk productivity in dairying and may set off losses to dairy farmers. Hence, there is an urgent need to reduce the SCM and CM prevalence by implementing scientific dairy management, good feeding practices, and timely therapeutic interventions for increasing the benefits from dairying to the farmers in the World.