Farmers’ perceptions of goat kid mortality under communal farming in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Rearing of goats under communal farming conditions is characterised by high kid mortality and low weaning percentages. A survey was conducted to determine farmers' perceptions on the causes of kid mortality during summer under the communal farming system in Nkonkobe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This was done by administering questionnaires to a total of 162 respondents in 14 villages around Nkonkobe Local Municipality. The study showed that majority of farmers (75 %) keep flock sizes of less than 10 goats and kids, and this indicates that goat production in Nkonkobe Local Municipality is suppressed. According to the farmers, diseases (89 %), endo-parasites (72 %) and ecto-parasites (68 %) were perceived as the major causes of kid mortality. Other causes reported include starvation (15 %), extreme weather conditions (28 %), abortion (7 %), theft (35 %), diarrhoea (43 %), accidents (10 %) and wounds (9 %). The low number of goats could be attributed to high mortalities. It was also found that all causes reported by farmers played a role in high kid mortality in Nkonkobe Local Municipality. However, the causes which require more emphasis to formulate extension support were tick-borne diseases and parasites. This study provided baseline information on possible causes of kid mortalities in Nkonkobe Local Municipality. There is, however, a need to conduct further studies to determine actual causes of high kid mortalities so as to develop preventive strategies that would minimize kid mortality for good economic returns.

Characterization and typology of sheep and goat production systems in the State of Paraíba, a semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil

“…In Sub-Saharan Africa, communal grazing systems were observed, where goat herds of small farmers living in the villages were raised together (GWASE et al, 2009), which differs from the system observed in Paraíba, where small farmers own the lands where they raise their animals. Studies in South Africa and Kenya show the occurrence of diseases in small ruminants as a limiting factor to production (KOSGEY et al, 2008;SLAYI et al, 2014), which was also observed in the present study. However, in South Africa, incentive programs were implemented towards the commercialization and genetic improvement of herds that favored the productivity of native breeds (ROETS; KIRSTEN, 2005;MOHLATLOLE et al, 2015), a fact which was not observed in this research, where the goat breeds that had some genetic improvement, mainly dairy breeds, originated from exotic breeds such as Saanen and Anglo-Nubian.…”

Amblyomma hebraeum is the predominant tick species on goats in the Mnisi Community Area of Mpumalanga Province South Africa and is co-infected with Ehrlichia ruminantium and Rickettsia africae

“…Nevertheless, one needs to keep in mind that goat production efficiency cannot be measured in saleable livestock numbers only, since raising goats is considered an insurance against emergencies by these farmers. Farmers' perception of goat kit mortality under communal farming conditions in South Africa has been surveyed, whereby ectoparasites (predominantly ticks) scored high and were perceived a major cause of mortality [10].…”

Monitoring Body Weight Gain of Goat Kids for Improving Productivity

“…In South Africa, major causes of kid mortality were tick-borne gall sickness diseases, endoparasites and ecto-parasites [12]. In another study, pre-weaning mortality rate of Angora kids was 11.5 per cent, caused by predators (39%), weak kids which needed help with suckling (19 %), does having no milk (7%) and does abandoning their kids (7%).…”