Md. Anowar Parvez1*, Md. Rayhan Faruque1, Rokeya Khatun2

Abstract | Abortion and calf mortality are representing significant economic loss in commercial dairy farms all over the world. The present study aimed to investigate the abortion rate, calf mortality and proportion of different types of cattle in commercial dairy farms of Bangladesh. A preset questionnaire was developed to collect information through active surveillance. This study was conducted in seven divisions a total of 73 registered dairy farms having 3260 cattle were considered as the source of population for epidemiological survey during 2014. The collected data revealed that the sex ratio was (752) 23.06% males and (2508) 76.94% female. Among of the total female cattle (2508), the milking cow, pregnant and heifers and female calf were 47.89%, 37.24%, 17.58% and 21.45% respectively. The results showed that a total of 98 abortion cases were observed in 1201 milch cows. The prevalence of abortion was 8.16%. The number of death calves was 126 among 1026 born calf. The calf mortality rate was revealed 12.28%. Finally the result found that total calf crop loss appears to be (8.16%+12.28%) 20.44%, which is very alarming in the growth of dairy industry. However, the study concluded that abortion and calf mortality are widely prevalent and distributed among commercial dairy farms in Bangladesh. Further studies need to be carried out by using this demographic data to prove the causes and implementation of preventive measures among the dairy farms to prevent abortion and calf mortality in Bangladesh.

Keywords | Abortion, Calf Mortality, Cattle Population, Dairy Farm, Bangladesh