Farmer knowledge, attitudes and practices of African animal trypanosomiasis on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria
Abstract
Participatory rural assessment was conducted in 30 villages across the Jos plateau, Nigeria to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of farmers on animal health and husbandry in general and trypanosomiasis in particular. Information was collected on 30 study villages and 71 individual herds on information on knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning tsetse and trypanosomiasis was collected, as well as general animal husbandry, herd size and composition, disease and mortality, disease control strategies, transhumance and household income and expenditure. Results after the group discussion showed that liver fluke was considered the most important disease, being cited as a problem by 98.6% or all but 1 of the respondents and never ranked lower than 3rd in importance. Trypanosomiasis was the second most important disease, cited as a problem by 94% of respondents and ranked from the first to the fifth in importance. Foot and mouth was the third most important disease, cited as a problem by 46% of respondents and ranked from first to fifth in importance. Pneumonia was the 4th most important disease, cited by 40% of the respondents and ranked from second to sixth in importance. When asked to rank trypanosomiasis for importance amongst the disease affecting their cattle, 9 villages (30%) considered it the most important disease; 16 villages (53.3%) considered it amongst the top 3 diseases and 5 villages (16.7%) recognised it as a problem but did not consider it a priority. 29 villages (96.7%) in the study used drugs specifically to treat trypanosomiasis. Farmers in all 30 villages (100%) knew about tsetse flies whilst those in 24 villages (80%) knew that they caused animal trypanosomiasis, however, only 17 villages (56.67%) employed some sort if protection for their cattle against tsetse flies.
Citation
Majekodunmi, A.; Shaw, A.; Welburn, S. Farmer knowledge, attitudes and practices of African animal trypanosomiasis on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria. Presented at 13th Association of Institutions for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (AITVM) Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 23-26 August 2010. (2010)
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