There is a scarcity of data on animal welfare and its impact on livelihoods to inform animal welfare initiatives in Ethiopia. Perceptions and practices of rural households toward animal welfare are influenced by socio-cultural, demographic, and agroecological factors. We conducted Community Conversations in two geographically and culturally diverse regions of Ethiopia to explore the attitudes and practices of rural households regarding animal welfare and its impact on livelihoods. Community Conversations are facilitated dialogues among rural households to explore their perceptions, practices, constraints, and needs and identify and co-create solutions to improve the welfare of their animals. We used single- and mixed-sex discussion groups to understand community members' gendered perceptions of animal welfare and influence their attitudes and practices toward gender-equitable roles in animal welfare management. In the Community Conversations, community members readily described the biological needs of their animals but there was also a good acknowledgment of the behavioral and affective state needs of animals. Identified constraints for animal welfare included feed and water shortage, limited veterinary support, and poor animal handling practices. Community members described the welfare of their animals as being intertwined with their own livelihoods and identified productive, public health, and non-economic benefits of good animal welfare. Raising awareness of animal welfare within rural communities through Community Conversations is a useful way to both identify livestock production needs as well as engage community members in making practical improvements in animal welfare. The understanding of perceptions, practices, and needs of rural households in animal welfare helps engage communities in starting behavioral change and provides insights into developing context-specific welfare improvement interventions. Community Conversations are also an effective way to feedback community voices into planning to build a bottom-up implementation of animal welfare programs.
The objective of this study was to characterize the distribution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from livestock feces and soil in smallholder livestock systems. A cross-sectional study was carried out sampling 77 randomly selected households in four districts representing two agroecologies and production systems. E. coli was isolated and the susceptibility to 15 antimicrobials was assessed. Of 462 E. coli isolates tested, resistance to at least one antimicrobial was detected in 52% (43.7–60.8) of isolates from cattle fecal samples, 34% (95% CI, 26.2–41.8) from sheep samples, 58% (95% CI, 47.9–68.2) from goat samples and 53% (95% CI, 43.2–62.4) from soil samples. AMR patterns for E. coli from livestock and soil showed some similarities, with the highest prevalence of resistance detected against streptomycin (33%), followed by amoxycillin/clavulanate (23%) and tetracycline (8%). The odds of detecting E. coli resistance to ≥2 antimicrobials in livestock fecal samples were nearly three times (Odd Ratio—OR: 2.9; 95% CI, 1.72–5.17; p = 0.000) higher in lowland pastoral than in highland mixed crop–livestock production systems. These findings provide insights into the status of resistance in livestock and soil, and associated risk factors in low-resource settings in Ethiopia.
Milk and milk products are essential in the diets of the Borana pastoral community in Ethiopia. Traditional handling and processing of dairy products using basic equipment and infrastructure coupled with a preference for raw milk consumption pose potential health risks to consumers. We tested the effect of an intervention designed to improve the hygienic handling and safe consumption of milk on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of women who produce and sell dairy products. The intervention consisted of 16 h of training on good milk production practices and prevention of milk-borne diseases. A total of 120 women were trained and their KAP assessed at baseline (pretraining), immediately after training, and 6 mo after training. Overall, training increased the knowledge score of the participants from 75.6 to 91.4% in the immediate post-training assessment, and to 90.0% at 6 mo post-training. Compared with pretraining (58.8%), we found a statistically significant difference in the overall attitude score at the immediate post-training evaluation (64.7%) but not 6 mo after (61.4%). We observed a similar increase in the understanding of correct practices from 49.5% at pretraining to 64.7% 6 mo following the training. For some desirable attitudes and practices, the proportion of women reporting adoption at pretraining was low and the change derived from training still left one-third of respondents displaying a negative attitude and a quarter of them reporting wrong practices. We recommend that future training interventions be complemented with locally adaptable technologies, provision of incentives, and creation of an enabling environment including improved access to clean water and sanitation facilities to affect not only knowledge, but also attitudes and ultimately practices in the long term.
A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of bovine mastitis, associated potential risk factors and major etiological agents of clinical and sub clinical mastitis under different management condition of pastoral, agro-pastoral, ranch and farm by using California mastitis test and bacteriology. A total of 384 lactating Borana cows in Did-tuyura ranch, Yabello Pastoral and dryland agriculture research center (YPDARC) dairy farm and three districts namely Gomole, Moyale and Yabello of Borana zone were included in the study. The study revealed that overall prevalence of mastitis were 47.4 % (182/384); out of which 12 % (46/384) clinical and 35.4 % (136/384) sub-clinical mastitis whereas prevalence at quarter level was 21.48% (330/1536) of which 3% (46/1536) and 18.48% (284/1536) were clinical and sub-clinical form respectively. From the total examined quarter, 3.5% (53) of quarters had blind quarter. Prevalence in pastoral and agro-pastoral herding system (extensive management system) at cow level and quarter level were 18.9% and 10.9% respectively while prevalence in Did-tuyura ranch and YPDARC dairy farm herding system (semi-intensive) were 20% and 7% at cow level and quarter level respectively. The prevalence of mastitis significantly (P<0.05) differed with parity, stage of lactation and body condition of lactating animals. From 330 California Mastitis Test (CMT) and clinically positive milk samples there was growth of bacteria on culture media observed only in 155 (46.97%). Out of this Staphylococcus aureus accounted for 59 (38.06%) isolates followed by Streptococcus species 33 (21.29%) and Coagulase negative Staphylococcus 30 (19.35%). Due to lack of proper managements of different risk factors major pathogenic microorganisms are isolated. Proper preventive and control strategy, awareness creation on key factors of mastitis, Regular screening and culling of chronically infected cows should be practiced.
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