Using Community Conversations to explore animal welfare perceptions and practices of rural households in Ethiopia

Lemma, Mamusha; Doyle, Rebecca; Alemayehu, Gezahegn; Mekonnen, Mesfin; Kumbe, Adem; Wieland, Barbara

doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.980192

Cited by 4 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Community members attach different values or meanings to animals depending on the purpose of the animals and their relationships with the animals. For instance, women value and have a closer relationship with dairy cows, while men focus on social status and prestige, and thus attach more value to cattle and their number ( 12 ). Mixed crop farmers have frequent interaction with their animals due to the smaller herd size and the use of animals for crop agriculture and transport ( 5 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is important to consider when turning the results from the current study into practice change to improve animal welfare. Community-based engagement and learning processes, called Community Conversations have the potential to both increase awareness of an issue and generate community-led steps to address issues ( 12 ). Community Conversations collectively identify community strengths, knowledge gaps, and constraints, analyze community values and practices, and explore strategies for addressing challenges ( 20 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Community-based engagement and learning processes, called Community Conversations have the potential to both increase awareness of an issue and generate community-led steps to address issues ( 12 ). Community Conversations collectively identify community strengths, knowledge gaps, and constraints, analyze community values and practices, and explore strategies for addressing challenges ( 20 ). This approach can make Community Conversations a particularly useful tool for animal welfare improvements because it creates awareness of issues and enables the participants to then create solutions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The socio-demographic characteristics of study participants such as age, gender, and occupation were also captured. While developing the tool, we reviewed different literature dealing with animal welfare and applied insights gained through community conversations with Ethiopian livestock owners from similar regions ( 12 , 20 ). The questionnaire was then reviewed and assessed by subject experts and the research team for its content, design, validity, relevance, and understanding of the questionnaire items.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Livestock owners are responsible for ensuring all aspects of animal welfare, including proper management, housing, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, animal care, human handling, and when necessary, humane killing ( 11 ). Livestock owners in Ethiopia mostly describe animal welfare as related to the biological needs of the animals but do also recognize their animals' affective state and behavioral needs ( 12 , 13 ). It is not clear their knowledge of different components of animal welfare, however, nor how well they are putting these into practice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Animal welfare knowledge, attitudes, and practices among livestock holders in Ethiopia

Alemayehu¹,

Berhe²,

Gelan³

et al. 2022

Front. Vet. Sci.

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Improving animal welfare is a human responsibility and influenced by a person's values and experiences. Thus, it is critical to have an in-depth understanding of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of animal welfare among animal owners. For livestock in Ethiopia, the greatest proportion of livestock are reared by pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities. A cross-sectional survey covering a range of species and animal welfare aspects was carried out on a total of 197 household (117 pastoral and 80 crop-livestock owners) and recorded information on 34 animal welfare KAP items. Item response theory models (IRT) were fitted to the data from KAP items to estimate the probability of correctly answering an item. This was used as a function of the respondents' KAP level. Overall, the highest percentage of desirable scores was recorded for the knowledge scale (35.7%) and the lowest was for the practice scale (24.6%). A significant correlation (P < 0.01) was found between knowledge of the farmers and their attitude toward animal welfare and self-reported practices. Generally, households practicing mixed crop-livestock farming system had better animal welfare knowledge, attitude, and practice than pastoralist. Mixed crop-livestock farmers had better knowledge on items related to observing the nutrition condition of the animal, animal-human relationship, the importance of water, and health inspection compared to pastoralists. In contrast, pastoralists had better knowledge of items related to natural behavior expression, animal care, and animal suffering than mixed crop-livestock farmers. Pastoralists had 3.3-times higher odds than mixed crop-livestock farmers to have a positive attitude to train their animals without beating. KAP scores demonstrate the need for targeted training to improve animal well-being (i.e., housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling) across livestock holding communities in Ethiopia.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Animal welfare knowledge, attitudes, and practices among livestock holders in Ethiopia

Alemayehu¹,

Berhe²,

Gelan³

et al. 2022

Front. Vet. Sci.

Self Cite

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Enhancing community awareness of antimicrobial use and resistance through Community Conversations in rural Ethiopia

Lemma,

Alemu,

Amenu

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Background Enhanced availability of veterinary drugs in Ethiopia has led to a growing use of these drugs in food-producing animals. However, the use of drugs in livestock production is not commonly supervised. In addition, smallholder livestock keepers often lack sufficient training and information about how the drugs work and their appropriate usage to achieve the intended impact. Methods We used Community Conversations to raise awareness and knowledge about antimicrobial use among rural communities. This revealed perceptions and practices of rural households regarding the use of antimicrobials and the risk of drug resistance in livestock. We used women-only, men-only, and mixed-gender discussion groups to explore the gendered perceptions and practices of community members regarding antimicrobial use and resistance. Results The discussions with rural communities identified factors that contribute to the misuse of antimicrobials, including poor regulatory system, limited diagnostic capacity, and inadequate knowledge and information among community members regarding the appropriate usage of antimicrobials and the potential resistance emergence. Conclusions Raising awareness about antimicrobial use and the potential emergence of resistance is an effective approach to promoting behavior change among rural communities concerning the use of antimicrobials and enhancing livestock management practices. The insights gained from understanding the perceptions and practices of rural communities regarding the use of antimicrobials can help in developing targeted education and training programs for stakeholders involved in the antimicrobial supply chain.

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Challenging structures: gender transformative interventions by livestock CRP in Ethiopia

Kinati,

Temple,

Baker

et al. 2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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IntroductionThis study is a review of secondary literature that has been synthesized to extract information and demonstrate the implementation and impact of community conversations (CCs) on gender aspects of social norms in livestock-based systems in Ethiopia.MethodsThe study used the phenomenological method of qualitative literature review to sketch the gender transformative approach to the delivery of knowledge products in a program on transforming the small ruminant value chain. The CC aimed at addressing gender-related norms in the division of labor, resource ownership, and handling practices of animals and their products previously identified, and those that emerged during the CC events across the study sites. A total of 1,517 community members (out of which 574 are women) took part in various CC events.Results and discussionThe review shows that the gender-related norms addressed were in line with the identified constraining norms faced by women livestock keepers in the mixed and livestock-based systems. The CC approach adopted complied with the stages laid out in literature: identification of existing knowledge; imparting new knowledge; knowledge integration and application; and review, reflection, and re-planning. The process was inclusive and community-engaging, which possibly cultivated intrinsic motivation and ownership of the process. Changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices at household, community, and institutional levels were identified. The conclusions include institutionalizing the gender transformative approach in the public agricultural extension system. This could be facilitated by the generation of robust objective evidence of impacts and guidance for subsequent scaling at local, regional, and national levels.

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Using Community Conversations to explore animal welfare perceptions and practices of rural households in Ethiopia

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Animal welfare knowledge, attitudes, and practices among livestock holders in Ethiopia

Animal welfare knowledge, attitudes, and practices among livestock holders in Ethiopia

Enhancing community awareness of antimicrobial use and resistance through Community Conversations in rural Ethiopia

Challenging structures: gender transformative interventions by livestock CRP in Ethiopia

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