Adoption of management practices by the farmers to control sub-clinical mastitis in dairy cattle

The study was conducted on 80 farmers and 150 cows at surrounding villages of Nadia district, West Bengal to investigate the level of management practices adopted by the farmers for maintaining their cattle as well as to detect the incidence of sub clinical mastitis on the basis of their adopted management practices. Survey on the basis of questionnaire was done with the farmers. Simultaneously milk samples from the animal were taken to detect the incidence of sub clinical mastitis. Farmers as well as cows were divided into three groups on the basis of their management practices as, Group I, Group II and Group III which includes poor, fair and good management practices respectively. Each group comprises 50 animals. Comparisons were made between the groups and it was found that farmers adopted about 10% poor (group I), 45% fair (group II), whereas 25 % good (group III) management practices. Further, when milk sample was tested to detect the incidence of sub clinical mastitis, it was found that in Group I, all 50 cows (100%), Group II, 46 (92%) out of 50 cows and Group III, 1 (2%) out of 50 cows (might be due to individual immunity level or differences in adaptability to local climate) were observed positive for sub clinical mastitis. Hence, the result revealed that the incidence of sub clinical mastitis was higher in the poor and fair than good management practices, which signifies that exploration of knowledge to the farmers about good management practices for maintaining their cattle is still needed. Thus, dissemination of knowledge based on the study will help in the production of high quality, good, clean and safe milk, which will provide a major financial support to the farmers