Ciência e Tecnologia Veterinária

Assessment of Community Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Milk Born Zoonoses Disease in Debre-Birhan Town, North Shewa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Yeshibelay Girma

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in Debre-Birhan town, North shoa, Ethiopia, with the objective of assessing knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of the study participants with respect to milk born zoonosis; and to determine the effect of demographic character of respondents on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of zoonosis disease. Data were collected through administering semi-structured questionnaire across the randomly selected Collection centers, Retailers, Consumers and Smallholder dairy farmers of the Towns. The questionnaire was administered to 230 respondents (5 milk collection centers, 100 consumers, 40 retailers and 85 smallholder dairy farms). The study result showed that 63.5% of the respondents from the total study population knew diseases can be acquired through cow milk, 61.3% of respondents did not know the names of milk borne zoonotic diseases, 50.9% of the respondents’ forms of milk preference were raw milk. Of the total respondents, 35.2% had no idea of prevention of milk borne diseases. In this study 92.2% of the respondent did not get formal training on zoonotic disease. There was strong association between educational level and KAP of the respondents on milk borne zoonosis, with statistically significance difference (p<0.05). There was statistically significance difference (p<0.05) on KAP of milk borne zoonosis of the respondents between urban and peri-urban areas. The study population has low level of awareness regarding milk borne zoonosis. One way to approach this problem would be to develop educational outreach programs for dairy producers, as well as for the general public, that focus on issues related to the consumption of raw milk and milk borne zoonosis.