Background and Aim: Dairy cow mortality and culling are important parameters reflecting on cow health, productivity, and welfare as well as important determinants of herd sustainability, growth, and profitability. There are no published reports on the causes and rates of mortality and culling of dairy cows in Jordan. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the most common causes and rates of mortality and culling of adult dairy cows in Jordan using a single well-managed dairy farm as a model over 3 years.

Materials and Methods: Data extracted from the farm management record software over 3 years (January 2016–December 2018) were used in this study. Cow-specific data included the date and month of sale, death or euthanasia, age, parity, reproductive status, and daily milk yield. Cow health-specific data included physical examination findings, presumptive diagnosis, medical or surgical treatments, postmortem findings, and any available laboratory findings. Descriptive analysis was performed to determine means (± standard deviation) and frequencies of various variables using Excel Spreadsheets of Microsoft Word 10.

Results: The 3-year rolling cow population in the farm used in the study was 500 ± 35. The overall mortality and culling rates were 5.9% and 28.5%, respectively. The mean age of died and culled cows was 3 ± 1.2 and 4 ± 1.5 years, respectively. The mortality rates were highest in the colder months (January through April). The most frequent causes of mortality were infectious diseases (28%), followed by non-infectious gastrointestinal diseases (25%), udder and teat diseases (mastitis 22%), and other diseases/accidents (25%). Of the infectious diseases, the most frequently diagnosed were enterotoxemia (12%), tuberculosis (TB) (8%), enteric salmonellosis (7%), and paratuberculosis (1%). The most frequently diagnosed non-infectious gastrointestinal diseases were traumatic reticulitis (11%), vagal indigestion (9%), and abomasal ulcer (5%). The most frequently diagnosed diseases causing mortality involving other body systems were reproductive diseases (acute puerperal metritis 6%), respiratory diseases (pneumonia 5% and pulmonary embolism 1%), metabolic diseases (fatty liver 3%), musculoskeletal diseases (septic arthritis 3% and downer cow syndrome 4%), neurologic diseases (unspecified causes 2%), and finally accidents (electrocution 1%). The most frequent causes of culling were old age/low milk production (39%), followed by the poor reproductive performance (31%), diseases/accidents (24%), and unidentified causes (6%). The most frequent diseases/accidents causing culling were udder diseases (mastitis 32%), followed by non-infectious gastrointestinal diseases (28%) (vagal indigestion [15%], rumen tympany [7%], and abomasal ulcer [6%]), musculoskeletal diseases (23%) (foot and claw diseases [7%], downer cow syndrome [7%], hip luxation [5%], septic arthritis [2%], and gastrocnemius rupture [2%]), respiratory diseases (pneumonia 10%), and finally infectious diseases (9%) (paratuberculosis [3%], hemorrhagic bowel syndrome [2%], and TB [2%]).

Conclusion: Results of this study showed that the majority of deaths and culling of dairy cows in Jordan are due to infectious diseases followed by non-infectious gastrointestinal diseases and mastitis. More efforts aiming at improving biosecurity standards, nutritional management, and mastitis prevention measures are required to limit the impact of disease on farm economy, animal health and productivity, and animal welfare in Jordan.

Keywords: animal welfare, culling rate, dairy cows, Jordan livestock, mortality rate.