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Prevalence of bovine mastitis and main risk factors in Tunisia

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Abstract

Tunisian milk chain is in danger with a dramatical reduction of milk production over the last years. Improving the quality of milk seems mandatory to improve farmers’ income, but for the moment, there is only scarce data on milk quality management in Tunisia. In this context, the aims of our study were first to describe the prevalence of bovine mastitis in 267 cows from 71 representative small dairy farms in the North (43.7%) and Center (56.3%) regions of Tunisia, using mastitis detection by California Mastitis Test (CMT) on milk quarter and clinical signs, and second, to assess possible risk factors for mastitis from animal, environment, and breeding management. In parallel, cow and bulk milk somatic cell count (SCC) were analyzed. Our results demonstrated that 60.3% of cows showed mastitis as determined by CMT and clinical examinations. Increased stage of lactation, parity, udder depth, and type of milking were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with increased odds of mastitis prevalence. The mean of individual cow SCC (ISCC) and bulk milk SCC (BMSCC) was very high (1083 × 103 cells/mL and 698 × 103 cells/mL, respectively), all ranks and stages of lactations combined. These high values confirm the infectious origin of mastitis that we found caused mainly by Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococci. In conclusion, control of the identified risks factors and improved biosecurity measures must be encouraged to restore udder health and milk quality and thus productivity and durability of Tunisian milk chain.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Western North Sylvo-Pastoral Development Office, the dairy group «Vitalait», Moncef Kthiri, Sonia Braiek, and all the livestock advisor for their support and help during the survey and the sampling process. They also thank the diagnostic bacteriology laboratory of Veterinary Research Institute of Tunis (IRVT) and the laboratory of the dairy control service of the livestock and pasture office of Beja and Sidi Thabet for their help for the milk samples analysis. Many thanks to the Tunisian smallholder farms who agreed to participate in this study.

Funding

This study was partially funded by the Research Laboratory for health and quality management of animal production (LR Agr 14) of the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet and by the dairy group «Vitalait».

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Supérieur Agronomique de Chott Mariem, Université de Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

    Abir Maalaoui & Habib Majdoub

  2. Laboratoire de Recherche Gestion de La Santé Et de La Qualité Des Productions Animales, Ecole Nationale de Médecine Vétérinaire de Sidi Thabet, Université de La Manouba, Ariana, Tunisia

    Abir Maalaoui, Habib Majdoub, Abdesselem Trimeche & Pierre Guy Marnet

  3. Institut de La Recherche Vétérinaire de Tunis (IRVT), Tunis, Tunisia

    Nada Souissi

  4. Higher School of Agriculture of Mateur, University of Carthage, Bizerte, Tunisia

    Fayçal Saidani

  5. Department of Animal Science and Production, Institut Agro, Rennes, France

    Pierre Guy Marnet

Authors
  1. Abir Maalaoui
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  2. Habib Majdoub
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  3. Abdesselem Trimeche
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  4. Nada Souissi
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  5. Fayçal Saidani
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Contributions

All authors contributed to this study. A.M. and A.T. designed the study. A.M., H.M., and N.S conducted the experimental work. A.T. and P.G.M supervised the study. A.M and F.S. analyzed the data. A.M., A.T., and P.G.M. wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abir Maalaoui.

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Ethics approval

Institutional animal ethics guidelines were followed for the experiment. Studied animals were subjected to minimum stress during milk sampling.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Maalaoui, A., Majdoub, H., Trimeche, A. et al. Prevalence of bovine mastitis and main risk factors in Tunisia. Trop Anim Health Prod 53, 469 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02925-7

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