Prevalence of Intramammary Infections and its Associated Risk Factors in Selected Malaysian Dairy Herds
Bashir A., Zunita Z., Jesse F.F., Ramanoon S.R. Mohd-Azmi M.L.
Keywords: Prevalence, Intramammary Infections, Risk Factors, Malaysia
Abstract
Intramammary Infections (IMIs) are diseases of economic importance that continue to affect both animal welfare and dairy milk production all over the world. A cross-sectional study was designed to access the level of IMIs and their associated risk factors from 33 selected dairy herds across 5 states of Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 1945 milk samples from 517 cows were used. The overall cow-level prevalence recorded was 70.6% (365/517). The quarter-level prevalence recorded was 38.3% (744/1945). There were little or no significant differences observed in the cow-level prevalence of IMIs among the states (P= 0.967). A number of risk factors like breed, age, parity, lactation stage, and teat lesion score were found to be statistically associated with the prevalence of IMIs in this study (P= 0.005). This paper suggests the need for the implementation of proper mastitis control programs in order to curb the devastating economic losses caused due to IMIs in Malaysian dairy herds, thus improving the farmers’ livelihoods.