Abstract:
A cross –sectional study was conducted on 209 lactating goats in Khartoum state, Sudan, during the period from May to July 2013. The objectives of the study were to estimate the overall prevalence of caprine mastitis (clinical and sub-clinical) and to investigate potential risk factors associated with the disease. A total of 209 lactating goats were randomly selected and screened using California Mastitis Test (CMT) for sub-clinical mastitis and clinically examined for clinical mastitis. The overall prevalence rate was 69.8% (10% clinical and 59.8% sub-clinic). The highest prevalence of clinical mastitis was reported in Bahri locality (11.6%) and the highest prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis in Khartoum locality (66.6%).While Khartoum locality showed the lowest prevalence of clinical mastitis (5.2%) the lowest prevalence of sub -clinical mastitis was reported in Bahri locality (40.2%).The following risk factors : locality (P-value = 0.01), herd size (P-value = 0.08), bedding (P-value = 0.008), bedding replacement (P-value = 0.19), age (P-value = 0.14), parity (P-value = 0.039), body condition (P-value = 0.000), breed (P-value = 0.101), lesion in the teat (P-value = 0.000), type of udder (P-value = 0.002) and previous mastitis (P-value = 0.165) showed statistically significant association (P-value < 0.25) with the occurrence of mastitis in the univariate analysis. The result of this study also showed that body condition (P-value = 0.000), lesion in the teat (P-value = 0.000), type of the udder (P-value = 0.002), bedding (P-value = 0.008) and bedding replacement (P-value = 0.002) had statistical significant associations with mastitis (P-value < 0.05) in the multivariate analysis.
