Abstract:
Milk and its products are key components of human
food chain and in Uasin-Gishu it’s the main source of
livelihood. However, widespread and prevalent mastitis
infection of dairy cows poses a threat to this source of
livelihood. Bovine mastitis is a worldwide infection
characterized by an inflammation of the mammary glands
and swelling of udder tissues caused by bacteria, fungi and
mycoplasma. Bovine mastitis is a public health burden that
has immensely contributed to widespread antimicrobial
resistance in cows and man, compromised milk quality
and quantity thus rendering milk and its products unfit
for human consumption. This study aimed at determining
incidence of bovine mastitis on small holder farms in
Moiben and Kapseret sub-counties of Uasin-Gishu
County. This prospective cohort study involved 216 cows
recruited on 81 small-holder farms. The cows were pre screened using microbiological culture method and those
found free of mastitis infection were recruited. The cows
were then monitored for development of mastitis between
January and October 2021. Sampling was done every 21
days and on any other day the farmer reported the cow
to be sick. Bacterial growth occurred after culturing milk
samples and the specific bacterial pathogens isolated and
identified. Of the total 216 cows, 104(48.2%) developed
mastitis, with the epidemiological distribution of mastitis
in the two sub-counties reported as 67(31.0%) in Moiben
and 37(17.2%) in Kapseret. Staphylococcal-mastitis
was the highest 66(30.6%), followed by Coli-mastitis
11(5.1%), Citrobacter-mastitis 6(2.8%), Micrococcal
and Streptococcal-mastitis 5(2.3%) each, while
Pneumococcal-mastitis and Pseudomonal-mastitis was
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Corresponding author:davidounah1@gmail.com
lowest at 2(0.9%) each. These findings suggested a high
incidence of contagious-bovine-mastitis, attributable
to Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus
aureus as the main causative agents. Mitigation of
contagious-bovine-mastitis unlike environmental
mastitis is reliable to reduce incidence of the disease.
