Assessment of community awareness and risk perceptions of zoonotic causes of abortion in cattle at three selected livestock–wildlife interface areas of Zimbabwe

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the awareness of cattle abortions due to brucellosis, Rift Valley fever (RVF) and leptospirosis, and to compare frequencies of reported abortions in communities living at the periphery of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area in southeastern Zimbabwe. Three study sites were selected based on the type of livestock-wildlife interface: porous livestock-wildlife interface (unrestricted); non-porous livestock-wildlife interface (restricted by fencing); and livestock-wildlife non-interface (totally absent or control). Respondents randomly selected from a list of potential cattle farmers (N = 379) distributed at porous (40·1%), non-interface (35·5%) and non-porous (26·4%), were interviewed using a combined close- and open-ended questionnaire. Focus group discussions were conducted with 10-12 members of each community. More abortions in the last 5 years were reported from the porous interface (52%) and a significantly higher per cent of respondents from the porous interface (P < 0·05) perceived wildlife as playing a role in livestock abortions compared with the other interface types. The odds of reporting abortions in cattle were higher in large herd sizes (odds ratio (OR) = 2·6; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·5-4·3), porous (OR = 1·9; 95% CI 1·0-3·5) and non-porous interface (OR = 2·2; 95% CI 1·1-4·3) compared with livestock-wildlife non-interface areas. About 21·6% of the respondents knew brucellosis as a cause of abortion, compared with RVF (9·8%) and leptospirosis (3·7%). These results explain to some extent, the existence of human/wildlife conflict in the studied livestock-wildlife interface areas of Zimbabwe, which militates against biodiversity conservation efforts. The low awareness of zoonoses means the public is at risk of contracting some of these infections. Thus, further studies should focus on livestock-wildlife interface areas to assess if the increased rates of abortions reported in cattle may be due to exposure to wildlife or other factors. The government of Zimbabwe needs to launch educational programmes on public health awareness in these remote areas at the periphery of transfrontier conservation areas where livestock-wildlife interface exists to help mitigate the morbidity and mortality of people from some of the known zoonotic diseases.

Brucellosis and chlamydiosis seroprevalence in goats at livestock–wildlife interface areas of Zimbabwe

“…Study areas were conveniently selected to include those with a livestock–wildlife interface in the Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) and Malilangwe Conservancy (MC) and another without a livestock–wildlife interface (Figure 1). The livestock–wildlife interfaces were a porous interface with unrestricted livestock–wildlife contact and a non-porous one with a fence preventing direct livestock–wildlife contacts (Ndengu et al 2017a). The selected porous interface was Malipati rural village, which lies directly adjacent to the GNP boundary.…”

“…Rural communities living on the edge of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area rely mostly on livestock production for their livelihoods (Caron et al 2013; De Garine-Wichatitsky et al 2013; Gadaga et al 2016; Ndengu et al 2017a). The boundary fence that was erected to separate wildlife and livestock in the area, as part of the foot-and-mouth disease control, has been destroyed; permitting varying degrees of livestock and wildlife contacts (De Garine-Wichatitsky et al 2013).…”

“…Thus, in these areas, humans, domesticated animals and wildlife live in close proximity with the transfer of disease between them being of growing concern (Simpson et al 2018). Gadaga et al (2016) and Ndengu et al (2017a) showed that livestock abortion is a huge challenge and farmers in these areas lack knowledge on possible abortion causes and their transmission pathways and are often at risk of contracting zoonotic infections because of risky animal husbandry practices and poor food handling of animal origin. Brucellosis has been serologically demonstrated in several herbivore wildlife species in the area (Caron et al 2013; Gomo et al 2012a; Madsen & Anderson 1995; Ndengu et al 2017b) and cattle (Gomo et al 2012a, 2012b; Ndengu et al 2017b).…”

Remote Sensing of Environmental Drivers Influencing the Movement Ecology of Sympatric Wild and Domestic Ungulates in Semi-Arid Savannas, a Review

“…The African buffalo is one of the "Big Five" [39] and contributes to consumptive and non-consumptive tourism [40,41], provides a source of proteins and income for local communities [42] and is an important member of the ungulate guild who shapes habitat heterogeneity in and outside protected areas where the human presence is low [43][44][45][46]. Cattle, in subsistence farming communities, provide draught power, source of protein, cash incomes, safety net and social status [47][48][49]. Buffalo and cattle are both grazer ungulates, close phylogenetically, sharing common resources (i.e., forage and water) [50], and are thus likely to overlap in range and compete for resources, particularly in environments where resources are spatially segregated (e.g., savannas) [51,52].…”

Seroprevalence of Leptospirosis and Its Association With Reproductive and Productive Parameters From Buffalo Population of Rajanpur and Muzaffargarh Districts of Pakistan

“…The etiological agent responsible for this disease occurrence is a pathogenic bacterium of genus Leptospira (Fornazari et al, 2012). This disease affects not only the milk production of animals but also causes several reproductive disorders like stillbirth, abortion and birth of weak calves leading to tremendous financial losses to small holder farming communities (Sanhueza et al, 2013;Ndengu et al, 2017). Due to availability of favorable environment for the transmission of Leptospira, this disease is prevalent in developing countries (Bharti et al, 2003).…”