Analysis of morbidity and mortality rates in bovine in Himachal Pradesh

Aim: The aim of the present study was to determine the morbidity and mortality rates of Bovine population present in Himachal Pradesh, India. In addition, the effect of age, sex, environmental conditions, management practices and other factors on the morbidity and mortality rate was also analyzed using suitable statistical techniques. Materials and Methods: Himachal Pradesh has been divided into four agro-climatic zones. Taking each agroclimatic zone as stratum, five veterinary hospitals from zone 1, two veterinary hospitals each from zone 2 and zone 3 and three veterinary hospitals from zone 4, were selected randomly. Three villages were selected from the villages covered by each veterinary hospital by simple random sampling without replacement scheme. A total of 15 livestock owners were selected from each selected village and thus a total 540 livestock owners constitute the ultimate sample from thirty six villages and twelve veterinary hospitals for the study. The sampling scheme followed in the present study is Stratified three-stage random sampling. Age, sex, season and cause wise morbidity and mortality data were collected from all selected bovine owners in the state for period of one year (January 2011 to December 2011). Results: The Overall analysis of morbidity rate in bovine was 31.22%. Among the three age groups, adults' bovine showed highest morbidity rate 35.73%, followed by calves 26.98% and young stocks 23.17%. Among the three age groups, calves had highest morbidity rate 16.09% due to poor management problems followed by adults 12.15% cases of reproductive problems. The overall mortality rate in bovine was found 9.14%. The overall analysis of mortality in bovine with respect to age revealed significance (p<0.01) difference between age and sex. Amongst the three age groups, calves showed highest mortality 21.53% followed by young stocks 9.35% and adults 4.73%. Among the three age groups, calves had highest mortality (16.09%) due to poor management problems followed by 2.48% cases of digestive diseases. Conclusion: Overall bovine morbidity and mortality rate were 31.22% and 9.14%. Major causes of morbidity were reproductive diseases followed by specific diseases and mortality were poor management problems followed by digestive diseases and specific diseases.