Evaluation of Locally Available Detergents for Detection of Subclinical Mastitis in Ugandan Dairy Cattle

Mastitis remains a major production constraint of dairy cattle farmers in Uganda leading to reduced production. Subclinical mastitis, though often ignored, is more prevalent and causes more economic losses compared to clinical mastitis. Studies have shown a consistently high prevalence of subclinical mastitis in different areas of Uganda. Screening is crucial in the control of subclinical mastitis but the most used screening test, the California Mastitis Test, is rather expensive and widely inaccessible to most poor farmers in Uganda. Research has shown that laundry detergents can accurately screen for subclinical mastitis which would be convenient for farmers in Uganda due to their cheapness and availability country wide. The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle in Kampala, the cow level risk factors and to determine the effectiveness of locally available domestic detergents in screening for subclinical mastitis. The study was carried out on 140 randomly selected lactating cattle in urban and peri-urban Kampala, Uganda. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis was determined using the California Mastitis Test (CMT). Optimized concentrations of the different detergent solutions were then tested using the same procedure as the CMT and their scores based on the gel formation of reagent with milk were recorded. A cow with at least one quarter with score ≥ 1 was considered positive for subclinical mastitis. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis was 81.6%. Parity and breed were significantly associated with subclinical mastitis. Primiparous cows were less susceptible (Odds ratio = 0.189; 95% CI: 0.069-0.521) as compared to multiparous. Friesians were more susceptible to subclinical mastitis (Odds ratio = 8.047; 95% CI: 1.268-51.078) compared to the local breeds. The Fleiss kappa, k = 0.556 (95% CI: 0.504-0.608, p < 0.001) in the ability to detect subclinical mastitis was seen in all detergents tested indicating a moderate to substantial reliability of the detergents when compared with the commercial CMT reagent. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of the detergents as compared to the CMT, ranged from 0.814 to 0.905 implying a high to excellent accuracy. Six (6%) magic detergent showed the best performance (AUC: 0.905) of all the locally available domestic detergents used in Uganda. This showed that local domestic detergents can be used as an alternative to the expensive and inaccessible CMT to detect subclinical mastitis in Uganda. This study therefore recommends veterinary legislation on the usage of domestic detergents in screening for subclinical mastitis and a willingness study by farmers in Uganda to uptake this diagnostic procedure.