Knowledge and Economic Loss of Pig Farmers to African Swine-Fever in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the knowledge and economic loss of pig farmers to African Swine-Fever (ASF) in Lagos state, Nigeria using appropriate standard methods with Questionnaires administered to120 respondents. Results revealed that the mean age of pig farmers was 47.5 years while 94% and 65% were married and male respectively. The result further showed that 51% were engaged fully in livestock production as their primary occupation while 47.9% have between 5-10 years of pig farming experience with 58.1% having tertiary education and over 60% sourced credit for their business externally. The results also revealed that farmers got information more from fellow farmers weekly (µ=29.25) and extension agents monthly (µ=28). With an average knowledge of ASF score of µ=1.61, farmers had high knowledge in “it is good to consult veterinary service on their farms” (µ=1.71) and low knowledge in “there is no need to disinfect the farms regularly” (µ=0.41). Furthermore, the results showed that farmers who raised large white breeds with 51–100 pigs suffered more (35.6%) losses than farmers with cross breed with cost of feeding accounting for 48.4% of the total cost of production The study also revealed that farmers' age, number of extension contacts (p<0.05) and number of ASF trainings attended (p<0.01) were positive drivers that influenced the level of knowledge of ASF. Farmers also cited the cost of feed (u=0.71) and disease outbreak (u=0.69) as the two biggest obstacles to pig production in the study area.