Assessment of dairy farmers hygienic milking practices and awareness on cattle milk-borne zoonoses in Bishoftu, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bishoftu town, Ethiopia, from November, 2016 to April, 2017, to assess smallholder urban dairy farmers’ milk hygiene practices and awareness on cattle milk-borne zoonoses. Data were collected from a total of 100 randomly selected dairy farmers using structured questionnaire. The results of the study showed that all respondents practiced hand milking, with twice (90%), once (8%) and thrice (2%) milking frequency per day. Most of the respondents (86%) cleaned their barn before milking and 98% used treated pipe water supply for farm activities. Plastic containers were commonly used for storage and transportation of milk. About 26 and 28% of the farmers used individual and common towel for wiping udder after washing, respectively. Most of the farmers (98%) did not practice post-milking dipping of teats. In all the farmers interviewed, respondents’ awareness levels of milk-borne zoonoses were 38.89, 33.33, 19.84, 6.35 and 1.6% for tuberculosis, mastitis, anthrax, brucellosis and salmonellosis, respectively. Based on the findings of this study, farmers’ awareness level on cattle milk-born zoonoses was low except for tuberculosis and mastitis. In conclusion, there was little awareness about milk borne diseases and some farmers adhered to some dairy hygiene practices. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen farmers’ awareness, extension services and training programs for smallholders in dairy industry on milking hygiene practices and post-harvest handling of milk, to minimize the likely losses due to rejection of spoiled milk and milk-borne dangers which may occur due to consumption of contaminated milk. Key words: Bishoftu, farmers’ awareness, milk-borne zoonoses, milking hygiene.