Original Scientific Article
A survey report on management practices on dairy donkey farms in Serbia
Snežana Bulajić * ,
Milica Kovačević-Filipović ,
Jasna Lončina ,
Miroslav Kjosevski ,
Ena Dobric ,
Katarina Nenadović

Mac Vet Rev 2026; 49 (1): i - xiii

10.2478/macvetrev-2026-0014

Received: 29 August 2025

Received in revised form: 28 October 2025

Accepted: 06 November 2025

Available Online First: 27 February 2026

Published on: 15 March 2026

Correspondence: Snežana Bulajić,
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Abstract

In Serbia, a growing demand for donkey milk is driving an increase in dairy donkey farms. This paper describes the demography and management practices at dairy donkey farms in Serbia using semi-structured face-to-face interviews with their owners. Additionally, microbiology of raw donkey milk was conducted to assess its hygienic quality and safety. The results show that most owners were male, aged over 51, who had not participated in dairy farming training courses (8/9; 88.89%). Most of the farms were located in North Serbia; they were family-run, with more than 20 animals in the herd. At the farms, straw was predominantly used as bedding material. Inadequate bedding hygiene and shelter dustiness were reported in 22.22% and 55.56% of the farms, respectively. Only two owners reported undertaking disinfection procedures for shelters or stables. All donkeys were fed hay supplemented with corn or oats, while wheat bran was provided at two farms. Healthcare measures such as vaccination and dental care were not carried out at the investigated farms, while deworming had never been performed on four of them (44.44%). The most common reported health problems were sudden death, abortion, stillbirth, and laminitis. Fore-milking was not performed on any of the farms. The post-milking procedure involved filtering through cotton gauze, packing in plastic bottles, and then refrigerating and/or freezing the milk, to be later sold at the farm. Presence of food-borne pathogens in raw donkey milk was not detected. Our results could help identify the key problems in country-specific donkey dairy management.

Keywords: dairy donkey farms, management, milk microbiology, Serbia, animal welfare

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Copyright

©2026 Bulajić S.This is an open-access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared that they have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest regarding authorship and publication of this article.

Citation Information

Macedonian Veterinary Review. Volume 49, Issue 1, Pages i-xiii, e-ISSN 1857-7415, p-ISSN 1409-7621, DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2478/macvetrev-2026-0014

The all content of the Macedonian Veterinary Review, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.