Factors affecting the use of biosecurity measures for the protection of ruminant livestock and farm workers against infectious diseases in central South Africa

Abstract

Biosecurity measures have been introduced to limit economic losses and zoonotic exposures to humans by preventing and controlling animal diseases. However, they are implemented on individual farms with varying frequency. The goal of this study was to evaluate which biosecurity measures were used by farmers to prevent infectious diseases in ruminant livestock and to identify factors that influenced these decisions. We conducted a survey in 264 ruminant livestock farmers in a 40,000 km 2 area in the Free State and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa. We used descriptive statistics, to characterize biosecurity measures and farm attributes, then multivariable binomial regression to assess the strength of the association between the attributes and the implementation of biosecurity measures including property fencing, separate equipment use on different species, separate rearing of species, isolation of sick animals, isolation of pregnant animals, quarantine of new animals, animal transport cleaning, vaccination, tick control and insect control. Ninety-nine percent of farmers reported using at least one of the 10 biosecurity measures investigated (median [M]: 6;This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The Effect of Biosecurity Implementation on Mortality in Layer Chicken Farming

“…This situation is the cause of the high mortality rate of livestock. Therefore, there is an effect of the implementation of isolation on mortality, this is in accordance with the opinion of [18] the importance of isolation measures for sick livestock so as not to spread disease to other livestock, so that livestock deaths do not occur. Implementation of isolation in layer farm which includes handling healthy and sick chickens, handling dead chickens, and quarantine measures.…”

Knowledge, perceptions, and practices around zoonotic diseases among actors in the livestock trade in the Lake Victoria crescent ecosystem in East Africa

“…Results from the study also showed that the actors have practices such as separating sick animals from the rest, not allowing sick animals in the market, and vaccinating their animals, which can prevent the animals from spreading diseases ( 60 – 62 ). Unlike other studies that have shown that pastoralists self-medicate their animals for different reasons, like having high confidence in their abilities and low confidence in the skills of animal health service providers, limited access to animal health service providers, and high cost ( 63 – 65 ) this study found that the livestock traders engage the help of those that they perceive to be animal health experts whenever they identify that their animal is sick.…”

Qualitative research applied to Public health: new topics and insight

“…Results from the study also showed that the actors have practices such as separating sick animals from the rest, not allowing sick animals in the market, and vaccinating their animals, which can prevent the animals from spreading diseases (60)(61)(62). Unlike other studies that have shown that pastoralists self-medicate their animals for different reasons, like having high confidence in their abilities and low confidence in the skills of animal health service providers, limited access to animal health service providers, and high cost (63)(64)(65) this study found that the livestock traders engage the help of those that they perceive to be animal health experts whenever they identify that their animal is sick.…”

“…OHL is a new concept that emerged to satisfy the requirements of the majority of patients with poor HL (60). It refers to a healthcare delivery system that uses strategies to assist people in participating in their treatment, navigating the healthcare system, understanding medical information, and taking charge of their health (60,62,63). The crucial function that OHL plays in improving patients' self-management support and communication have been underappreciated (64,65).…”