Abstract:
A questionnaire based herd level cross-sectional survey followed by calf level longitudinal
prospective study design was carried out between February 2022 and August 2022 on calf
morbidity and mortality in mixed crop-livestock production system in South and North Achefer
Districts of West Gojjam Zone, Northwestern Ethiopia. The objective of this study were to: i)
explore calf health problems and farm management practices, ii) quantify the incidence and
identify predictors and causes of calf morbidity and mortality, and iii) quantify the economic
losses of calf morbidity and mortality in the study areas. A total of 231 pre-weaning calves from
231 dairy cattle producers were considered for the study. Logistic regression was employed to
examine and quantify herd level risk factors affecting the occurrence of calf morbidity and
mortality in surveyed farms. Whereas Kaplan-Meier (K-M) method and Cox proportional
hazards regression were used to summarize the cumulative survival and to identify and quantify
factors affecting calf morbidity and mortality from birth to 210 days of age. Survey findings
revealed that about 30.7% and 15.2% of respondents had experienced calf morbidity and
mortality in the past one year. These were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by calf attendant’s
farm experience and training background. Among 231 calves enrolled for the prospective
cohort study, a total of 84 morbidity and 17 mortality events were recorded. This gives an
overall morbidity and mortality incidence rates (IRs) of 57 per 100-calf seven- months at risk
(risk rate of 43.4%) and 8 per 100-calf seven months at risk (risk rate of 7.7%), respectively,
or conversely, the overall seven months cumulative survival rate of calves from morbidity and
mortality was 61.5% and 90.5%, respectively. The most commonly diagnosed disease syndrome
was diarrhea with risk rate of 14%, followed by septicemia (7.7%), nevertheless, septicemia
was the leading cause of calf death (3.5% of 17 calf death, followed by diarrhea (1.3% of all
17calf deaths). Calf vigor status at birth, calf breed, calf house hygiene and colostrum ingestion
were found significant (p<0.05) predictors of calf morbidity from birth to seven months of age.
Whereas calf breed, vigor status at birth, calf house hygiene and ventilation status, mothering
instinct and dam parity were found significantly (p<0.05) predictors of crude mortality. The
overall estimated economic losses due to calf morbidity (84 sick calves) and mortality (17 calf
deaths) during the study period were 9,240.00 ETB (175.7US$) and 586,619.00 ETB
(11,152.45US$) respectively, which is equivalent to the financial losses of 110 ETB (2.09US$) due to morbidity and 34,617 ETB (658.1 US$) due to mortality at household level. Specifically,
the overall financial loss due to mortality, milk yield loss and morbidity including (weight
losses) were 586, 619.00 ETB (11,152.45 US$),307,989 ETB (5855.3US$) and 10,635 ETB
(202.2US$), respectively. In conclusion, a relatively higher level of calf morbidity and mortality
with multitude herd and calf level risk factors were investigated in the study areas. This could
negatively affect the replacement stock and income of cattle producers, where cattle production
was an integral component of livestock agriculture in the study areas. Therefore, a targeted
intervention centered on mitigating the identified herd and calf level risk factors is warranted.
Besides, further comprehensive study using proper economic analysis is suggested to
investigate the long-term impact of calf morbidity and mortality on the productivity
performance of individual animal and farm level economic performances.