Machila Noreen, Fèvre Eric M, Maudlin Ian, Eisler Mark C
Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Easter Bush, Roslin, Midlothian, Edinburgh EH25 9RG, UK.
Prev Vet Med. 2008 Nov 17;87(3-4):394-403. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2008.06.001. Epub 2008 Jun 30.
The ability of smallholder farmers and animal health workers to estimate live bodyweight can critically affect the likelihood of under- or over-dosing of veterinary compounds in decentralised systems where farmers administer a significant proportion of the veterinary treatments. A survey of 324 cattle owned by 170 farmers was conducted in Busia District, Kenya. Cattle were weighed on a standard calibrated scale and owners were asked to estimate the live weight of their animals. Weights were also estimated by a weigh-band and by local animal health workers. Cattle owners consistently underestimated the weights of their cattle; 85.7% of the cattle had their bodyweights underestimated by an average of 46.9% of their true weight. Furthermore, very few cattle (19.0%) had their weights estimated accurately to within +/-20% of their true weight by these farmers, an accuracy range important for drug dosing. This finding raises concerns of widespread under-dosing of cattle with trypanocidal and other veterinary drugs. Animal health workers were better at estimating live bodyweight of cattle; 76.6% of cattle were estimated accurately to within +/-20% of their true weight. It is possible to improve farmers' and animal health workers' ability to estimate accurately live bodyweight of cattle with appropriate training. Evidence of this was provided by animal health workers whose estimates improved over time as they received feedback of the true weights of different sizes of cattle from the standard scale.
在农民承担很大一部分兽医治疗工作的分散式体系中，小农户和动物卫生工作者估计家畜活体重量的能力会严重影响兽药剂量不足或过量的可能性。在肯尼亚布西亚区，对170位农户拥有的324头牛进行了一项调查。用标准校准秤对牛进行称重，并要求牛主人估计其牲畜的活体重量。还通过体重带和当地动物卫生工作者来估计重量。牛主人一直低估其牛的重量；85.7%的牛体重被低估，平均低估其真实体重的46.9%。此外，这些农户中只有极少数牛（19.0%）的体重估计准确在其真实体重的±20%以内，而这个准确范围对药物剂量很重要。这一发现引发了对牛使用杀锥虫药和其他兽药普遍剂量不足的担忧。动物卫生工作者在估计牛的活体重量方面表现更好；76.6%的牛体重估计准确在其真实体重的±20%以内。通过适当培训，有可能提高农户和动物卫生工作者准确估计牛活体重量的能力。动物卫生工作者的情况证明了这一点，随着他们从标准秤获得不同大小牛的真实体重反馈，他们的估计随着时间推移有所改善。
