Knowledge and disease management skills of cattle owners on East Coast Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease in Kazungula and Livingstone Districts of Zambia
2005
Chisembele, C.
Effective animal disease control and prevention should be based on accurate information from the field. Part of this field information can be obtained from the cattle owners. In order to assess their disease knowledge, a survey focusing on East Coast Fever (ECF) and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) was organised among 302 cattle owners from the Kazungula and Livingstone Districts of the Southern Province of Zambia. The cattle owners' level of knowledge of ECF was low (34%) with most of those able to describe the disease belonging to the endemic zone where ECF caused high death rates in cattle. A larger proportion of the cattle owners (46%) were able to give an adequate description of FMD symptoms. It reached up to 61% in the FMD high-risk zone. Reporting to the animal health service providers appeared to be low. The results of the survey showed that attempts should be made to improve the cattle owners' knowledge and response to important diseases by carrying out more extension and sensitization activities. This is especially so in areas of low infection or where the disease was experienced long time ago.
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