Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Egerton, Njoro, Kenya.
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2023 Aug 23;55(5):293. doi: 10.1007/s11250-023-03707-z.
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a contagious viral disease to which dairy cattle are highly susceptible. An outbreak of FMD in a dairy herds can cause a drop in milk yield, increase mastitis infections, and force culling. These production losses can be substantial, but farmers undervalue the magnitude of the loss that they incur. The study quantified the association of FMD outbreaks with milk yield, mastitis incidences, and culling rates. The data was from three large-scale dairy farms with a recent history (2008 to 2018) of FMD outbreaks in a region endemic for the prevalence of serotype C of the FMD virus since the mid-1980s in the Rift valley of Kenya. A total of 507 cows were monitored for three consecutive periods of six weeks before, during, and after FMD outbreaks. Relative to the period before and after the disease outbreak, production losses were marked during the outbreak. A disease outbreak was associated with up to 4.7% of the cows drying off (n = 24) and milk production dropped by 16.1%. The incidence of mastitis increased from 5.4% to 21.5% (OR = 3.31, CI = 2.27, 4.83) and culling rates increased from 0.59% to 3.8% (OR = 6.71, CI = 1.99, 22.58).
口蹄疫（FMD）是一种传染性病毒疾病，奶牛极易感染。在奶牛群中爆发口蹄疫会导致产奶量下降、增加乳腺炎感染，并迫使扑杀。这些生产损失可能相当大，但农民低估了他们所遭受的损失的规模。本研究定量了口蹄疫爆发与产奶量、乳腺炎发病率和扑杀率之间的关系。数据来自三个大型奶牛场，这些农场在 20 世纪 80 年代中期以来肯尼亚裂谷地区口蹄疫病毒 C 型流行的地区，在最近（2008 年至 2018 年）有口蹄疫爆发的历史。共有 507 头奶牛在口蹄疫爆发前、爆发期间和爆发后连续三个为期六周的时间段内进行了监测。与疾病爆发前后的时期相比，爆发期间的生产损失明显。疾病爆发与多达 4.7%的奶牛停产（n=24）和产奶量下降 16.1%有关。乳腺炎的发病率从 5.4%增加到 21.5%（OR=3.31，CI=2.27，4.83），扑杀率从 0.59%增加到 3.8%（OR=6.71，CI=1.99，22.58）。
