Articles, Conference and Workshop Papers Collection

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Browsing Articles, Conference and Workshop Papers Collection by Subject "Africa"

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    The prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis-infection and atypical mycobacterioses in cattle in and around Morogoro, Tanzania
    (Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2009) Durnez, L.; Sadiki, H.; Katakweba, A.; Machang’u, R. R.; Kazwala, R. R.; Leirs, H.; Portaels, F.
    A study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis-infection and atypical mycobacterioses in different cattle herd management systems in and around Morogoro, Tanzania. Between April and June 2005, a total of 728 bovines from 49 herds were tested for M. bovisinfection and atypical mycobacterioses. Milk samples were taken from tuberculin positive animals and analysed for the presence of mycobacteria. Total prevalences of 2.5% and 10.1% were found for M. bovisinfection and atypical mycobacterioses respectively, with more M. bovis-infection in cattle in the extensive management system and more atypical mycobacterioses in cattle in the intensive management system. From 8 out of 42 milk samples (19%) atypical mycobacteria were cultured. A higher prevalence of M. bovisinfection in the extensive sector could be due to several factors. In addition, such high prevalence puts herd owners and their families at risk for BTB. Therefore control of BTB, as well as education of cattle owners is important, especially in the extensive sector.
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    Profitability of supplementary feeding of indigenous cattle in dry areas of Tanzania
    (Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2020) Ringheim, Alexander Solstad; Mushi, Daniel; Mtengeti, Ephraim; Selemani, Ismail; Åsli, Magnus; Eik, Lars Olav; Kimbita, Elikira; Asheim, Leif Jarle
    By 2050, global food consumption is expected to rise by 60% compared to the 2005–2007 level. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the population increase may be as much as 250% by the same period. Hence, there is an urgent need to increase food production and introduce productivity-enhancing measures in SSA agricul- ture, including the livestock sector, which is the main focus of this article. The cur- rent productivity of the Tanzanian livestock sector is low due to seasonal variations in the availability and quality of pasture and other feeds. The cattle gain weight during the rainy season and lose weight in the subsequent dry season. Additionally, pastoralists face challenges due to the conversion of grazing areas into cropland, overgrazing, and the increasingly frequent droughts. Although the optimum age for slaughter is 3.5–4.5 years, farmers in Tanzania slaughter their cows at 5–6 years. This article argues that this may be an unhelpful economical management practice. To study the effects of improved feeding on economic performance, we collected data on on-farm supplementation experiments with indigenous Zebu cattle, in col- laboration with pastoral communities and a large-scale commercial wheat farm in Hanang, Tanzania. The study compared the income and costs associated with tradi- tional cattle keeping (TS) for 6 years at slaughter, with that of two levels of concen- trate supplementation, low (LSS) and medium (MSS), allowing for slaughtering at 4.5 and 3.5 years, respectively. Adjusted net margins for the three systems were 199, 911 and 978 USD, respectively. Our results strongly suggest that farmers should supplement the feeding of their young stock regularly, in times when the animals cannot sustain themselves on grazing alone. The primary explanations for the rec- ommendation were that supplementation would lead to increased production of meat and reduced variable costs, that is, feeds and drugs. Our study was limited to steers. Future studies should include supplementation of cows to obtain annual calv- ing and use of crop by-products instead of concentrates.