Comparative assessment of productive and reproductive performances of Mpwapwa breed cattle and its crosses

Dissertation

Mpwapwa breed, an Indo-African composite dual-purpose cattle, is suitable for production in medium to low input production systems, established in Tanzania in 1960s with the breeding goal of 2,300 kg milk yield per 305-day lactation length and for steers to reach a carcass weight of 230 kg in less than four years. This breed is currently faced with slow country-wide distribution which may be associated with many factors including scarcity comprehensive baseline information on productive and reproductive performances of animals, diseases, management practices and government policy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the productive and reproductive performances of Mpwapwa cattle breed and its crosses reared at the nuclear breeding center, Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI), Mpwapwa and under low in-put smallholder farmers around Mpwapwa district. A retrospective study of five consecutive years (2015 - 2019) involving 295 cows reared at TALIRI and a cross sectional study involved 986 cows kept by 100 householders in seven administrative wards of Mpwapwa district were used in this study. In retrospective study, individual animal records including date of birth, calving dates, insemination records, pregnancy rates (PR), lactation length (LL), average milk yield per day (AMYD), and total lactation milk yield (TLMY) were captured. For smallholders, the questionnaire captured socio-demographic characteristics of farmers, animals’ lactation length, average milk yield per day, number of services per conception (NSC), age at first heat, age at first calving, calving interval and major animal reproductive problems. Results from the animals kept at TALIRI revealed an overall mean of AFC, CI, PR, LL, AMYD and TLMY of 38.5±5.9 months, 19.92±5.64 months, 29.1%±14.4%, 237.72±71.20 days, 2.65±1.12 liters and 667.18±397.11 liters, respectively. The results for AFC, CI, LL and TLMY showed significance difference (p < 0.05) between Mpwapwa breed cattle and its crosses. However, PR results did not show significance difference (p > 0.05) between Mpwapwa breed and its crosses. For smallholders, majority of respondent (>94%) were married males, having primary education (66%), had over 15 years of experience of keeping livestock (76%) and keeping more than 20 Mpwapwa cattle breed (76%) for different motives such as economic enterprise, supplementary enterprise, home milk consumption and hobby. Recorded average productive and reproductive performance of animals in low-input production system were; 332 ± 16.7 days of lactation length, 3.08±1.11 liters of average milk yield per day, 17.5±6.6 months of calving interval, 32.3±8.21 months of age at puberty, 44.04±6.49 months of age at first calving,1.23±0.14 of average number of services per conception. Major animal problems reported were calf mortality of (17.0%), retained fetal membrane (24.0%), anestrous (20.0%), abortion (17.0%), endometritis (12.0%), repeat breeding syndrome (9.0%), dystocia (8.0%), pyometra (5.0%), uterine (3.0%) and vaginal prolapse (2.0%). It is concluded that reproductive and productive performance of Mpwapwa breed cattle and its crosses reared at the nuclear breeding center as well as under smallholders were lower as compared to the target goal set in 1960s when the breed was established. Therefore, there is a prudent need for improvement of management practices both at TALIRI as well as at smallholders so as to optimize the reproductive and productive performances of the Mpwapwa cattle; an Indo-Euro-African synthesis.