Perception and safety practices to zoonotic diseases transmission among small ruminant farmers in Ona-Ara local government area of Oyo State

Abstract

The study examined the awareness and safety practices to zoonotic diseases transmission among small ruminant farmers in Ona-Ara local Government area of Oyo state. Random sampling was used to select 50% of the farmers association in each village to give total number of 110 respondents in the study area. Data was obtained using structured interview schedule and described statistically with Chi Square and PPMC for the hypotheses. The study revealed that most (71.8%) of the respondents were male, 77.3% were married and 54.9% fell above 51 years of age. Also, the study revealed that 48.2% of the respondents had no formal education while few (7.2%) had secondary education with 49.1% of the respondents being Christians and 47.3% Muslim. The study further showed that most (75.5%) of the respondents had low level of awareness towards zoonotic disease transmission while 24.5 % had high awareness on zoonotic diseases. Also, most (50.9%) of the respondents had unfavourable perception towards zoonotic diseases transmission while 49.1 % of them had favourable perception. Also, most (91.8%) of the respondents regularly carried out routine disease monitoring on their animals, bondage the wounds of their animals (91.8%), wash or sanitize their hands after contact with diseased animals (75.5%) and apply disinfectant (70.9%). Hypothesis of the study revealed that there was no significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their use of safety practices except marital status (x²=29.748, p=0.000) and years of experience (r=0.342.  p=0.000) which were significantly related. PPMC analysis showed that there was significant relationship  between the level of awareness and safety practices (ᵪ² =0.420, p=0.000). Also, there was significant relationship between respondents’ perception on zoonotic disease transmission (r= 0.294, P=0.02). It is therefore recommended that appropriate authorities should create adequate enlightenment programmes on zoonotic disease transmission through various media to ensure a balance in the level of utilization of zoonotic disease information and safety practices among farmers.

Keywords: Awareness, safety practices, zoonotic diseases, small ruminant farmers