Screening test for prevalence of subclinical mastitis in small dairy animal holders in and around Sebata town.

Across sectional study was conducted from August to September 2021 to determine the prevalence of mastitis in locating dairy cows that are found in and around selected kebeles of Sebeta town. Age, breed, lactation period, calving interval and management of the animals were taken into consideration as risk factors. A total of 100 lactating cows (16 local, 20 cross and 64 exotic) were examined for mastitis using California Mastitis Test (CMT) and 63% of individual cows were screened to be test positive. An overall prevalence of (55.96%) was also recorded at quarter level. Higher rate of infection was determined in adult (70.18%) than in old (59.09%) and young (47.62%) cows, but statistical difference (P=0.852) in the prevalence of disease was not observed between those other age group. Statistically significant difference (P=0.031) in prevalence of mastitis was observed between cross (59.39%) and local breeds (81.25%) and exotic (60.00%). Cows in early lactation period (64.39%) were highly prevalent with mastitis than cows in late (62.50) and early lactation period (33.33%) with (P=0.0321). Besides, prevalence of 65.79%, and equal prevalence of (61.29%) was respectively determined in extensive, intensive and semi intensive management systems. In conclusion, the present study showed that mastitis is common in selected study areas and appropriate control strategies have to be designed to reduce the effect of the disease.