Veterinarski arhiv, Vol. 86 No. 2, 2016.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
A benchmark study of dairy calf mortality rates on the Islands of Malta and Gozo.
Mauro Buttigieg
; Department of Animal Medicine, Productions and Health, University of Padua, Legnaro, Padua, Italy
Matteo Gianesella
; Department of Animal Medicine, Productions and Health, University of Padua, Legnaro, Padua, Italy
Andrew James
; Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Research Unit, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Earley Gate, UK
Sažetak
The aim of this study was to determine the overall mortality rates of live born calves up to 180 days of age in dairy herds on the islands of Malta and Gozo. Five risk factors, namely: the island of birth, sex of calf, average herd size, the year and season of birth, were also studied. The data set used in the study consisted of a total of 44,078 calves, born between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2011, from all the dairy herds of both islands. From this dataset, 28,848 calves were born on Malta and 15,230 on Gozo. In total 2,821 calves were registered as having died before reaching 180 days of age. The overall calf mortality rate in live born calves up to 180 days of age was found to be 7.08 %. On Malta the overall mortality rate was 6.05 % and on Gozo 8.80 % (P<0.001). The overall mortality rate was 8.48 % for male calves and 5.99 % for females (P<0.001). Holdings with a lower average herd size had a significantly lower calf mortality rate (P = 0.01), whereas no significant difference was found when the season of birth was taken into consideration. A significant difference (P<0.001) was present when calf mortality was stratified by the year of birth, with the last 3 years of the study having a lower mortality rate than the first 5 years. This study is of relevance since calf mortality rates and the risk factors described are being investigated for the first time on Malta and Gozo.
Ključne riječi
dairy calf; Gozo; Malta; mortality rate; risk factor
Hrčak ID:
156706
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.4.2016.
Posjeta: 1.207 *