PRODUCTION AND ECONOMIC LOSSES DUE TO SOME COMMON INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF BUFFALOES IN KASHMORE

Abstract

Different infectious diseases in buffaloes, such as mastitis, foot and mouth disease (FMD), and hemorrhagic septicemia (HS), affect production and economic losses in dairy farms. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the production and economic losses due to infectious diseases of buffaloes in the district of Kashmore. Three Talukas (Kashmore, Kandhkot and Tangwani) randomly selected 50 respondents from each taluka (n=150) farmers and got the information on questionnaires proforma.  According to sociodemographic data showed that 61% of farmers knew most of the infectious diseases in the taluka Kashmore, mostly respondents (60%), were farmers. 48% of farmers have eight years above experience in livestock rearing, most of the farmers were male (86.66%) rearing the livestock. Data regarding the monthly income of the respondents 40% has above 40000 Rs. During the survey, the data revealed that 90% of buffaloes were infected with mastitis, 45% of animals were infected with FMD whereas 60% of animals were infected with HS. The highest prevalence percentage due to Mastitis (96%), FMD (85%) and HS (64%) in taluka Tangwani, mostly highest prevalence percentage of mastitis was recorded in all three taluka of district Kashmore, Highest prevalence were recorded in females (82.04%) of lactating buffaloes (65.68%%) under the age of (>3 years), whereas in male (17.95%) highest prevalence were recorded in male calves (12.72%). The highest (49.54%) morbidity percentage was recorded for mastitis, followed by FMD (33.97%) and HS (16.47%), whereas the highest mortality (52.27%) percentage was recorded in HS disease, followed by FMD (9.09%). The total economic losses due to infectious diseases in buffaloes in three talukas during period of study were estimated to be Rs. 1389300/- due to mastitis, 2109700 due to FMD and 90513300 due to HS Among these, the highest losses were due to mortality of calves (75%), followed by milk losses (18.54%), Medicine cost charges (3.95%) and veterinarian services charges (2.04%). Thus, above mentions infectious diseases seem to be the major problems in buffaloes in the study area