An epidemiological study of certain risk factors for mastitis

In dairy cattle farming, mastitis is a very common and costly multifactorial disease. Few epidemiological studies have been conducted on this disease in Algeria. Following a description of the situation observed in a sample of dairy farms, this study focused on identifying and assessing certain risk factors specific to dairy farms in the Central region of Algeria. For the descriptive study, 45 farms were examined, whilst for the analytical study, 15 of these 45 farms were selected. The results obtained made it possible to identify a group of factors that explain, to a certain extent, the incidence of this disease; these are, in order of importance: the stage of lactation; the parity; herd size; and breed. Thus, it appears that subclinical mastitis is more common in large herds (class 4), particularly in older cows (fourth lactation and beyond), but especially in cows at the beginning and end of lactation. This study of risk factors is an essential prerequisite for developing a plan to combat mastitis.