Mortality in sheep and goats and rearers’ patronage of veterinary clinics in Ogun state

Abstract

The study area was the entire Ogun State. Data collection was done with the aid of structured questionnaire. A minimum of 3-5 towns/villages were randomly sampled per local government. 15 questionnaires were administered in each local government. At the time of study, the state consisted of fifteen local governments. The field study spanned between mid-January and May, 1992. Mortality was caused by more through diseases of multiple causes (39.09%), viral causes (25.36%) and bacteria causes (13.40%) while many farmers (72.28%) hardly patronize veterinary clinics but a few (27.72%) do patronize the veterinary clinics. Among the factors identified to have caused reduced patronage of veterinary clinics and call on veterinary doctors are the unavailability of government and private veterinary clinics in the farmers’locality, ignorance of the farmers, high cost of veterinary services, lack of capital while some farmers are not even aware that there are veterinary clinics. In instances where veterinary clinics were found in farmers’ locality, it is far from the farmers. Lack of technical skills of how to rear these animals has made farmers to only treat animals more during disease outbreaks (66.17%).There is a need for veterinary clinics to be located close to the farmers especially in Egbado, Ijebu and Egba of Ogun State. There is also a need for publicising such clinics and their services to create awareness among the farmers.

Keywords: Sheep and goat;, veterinary clinics, mortality