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. 2017 Aug 7;12(8):e0182727.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182727. eCollection 2017.

The intention of North-Western Ethiopian dairy farmers to control mastitis

Sefinew Alemu Mekonnen  1   2 , Gerrit Koop  1 , Theo J G M Lam  1   3 , Henk Hogeveen  1   4
Affiliations

The intention of North-Western Ethiopian dairy farmers to control mastitis

Sefinew Alemu Mekonnen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Understanding the intentions of dairy farmers towards mastitis control is important to design effective udder health control programs. We used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the intentions of North-Western Ethiopian dairy farmers towards implementing non-specified mastitis control measures (nsMCMs) and towards implementing 4 specific MCMs. Face to face interviews were held with 134 dairy farmers to study associations between their intentions and any of three factors (attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) that, according to the TPB, determine intentions. The majority of the farmers (93%) had a positive intention to implement nsMCMs, whereas a smaller majority of farmers had the intention to implement the specific MCMs to improve udder cleaning (87%), to improve stall hygiene (78%), to improve feeding of cows (76%), and to perform foremilk stripping (74%). Farmers had a more positive attitude, but lower subjective norm and lower perceived behavioural control towards implementing nsMCMs compared with implementing most specific MCMs, although the subjective norms for stall hygiene and perceived behavioural control for improving feeding of cows were also low. Attitude was positively associated with intentions to implement nsMCMs, to improve cleaning of the udders, to improve stall hygiene and to implement foremilk stripping. Both the intention to improve udder cleaning and to implement foremilk stripping, were positively associated to subjective norms towards these MCMs. Our data can help tailor intervention programs aiming to increase the intention of Ethiopian dairy farmers to implement MCMs and thus to improve udder health in this country. We show that such programs should primarily focus on changing attitude and secondarily on improving the farmers' subjective norms.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: One of the corresponding authors, TJGML, is employed in GD animal health. However, this does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Framework of the theory of planned behavior model as applied in the performed analyses on the intention to participate in mastitis control measures (adapted from Ajzen [35]).
AT = Attitude, SN = Subjective norm, PBC = Perceived behavioral control. Dotted lines indicate associations that are not studied in this paper.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Dairy farmers’ intentions to implement mastitis control measures based on 134 farmers in North-Western Ethiopia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

SAM received funding from Netherlands organization for international cooperation in higher education (Nuffic): https://www.epnuffic.nl/; University of Gondar, Ethiopia: www.uog.edu.et/en/. One of the corresponding authors, TJGML, is employed in GD animal health. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for author, SAM, and covered all expenses of data collection and laboratory analysis, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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