Department of Disease Control, The University of Zambia, School of Veterinary Medicine, PO Box 32379 Lusaka, Zambia.
BMC Vet Res. 2010 Apr 20;6:21. doi: 10.1186/1746-6148-6-21.
Awareness of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) by cattle owners is of extreme importance to policy makers when considering mitigation. However, to our knowledge, little is known on cattle owners' awareness of BTB in Zambia. Similarly, such knowledge is uncommon within and outside Africa. The current study investigates the epidemiological characteristics of BTB in Zambian cattle in relation to awareness by cattle owners in high and low cattle BTB prevalence settings. A cross sectional study was designed and data was gathered based on 106 cattle owners and cattle herds; subjected to an interviewer-administered questionnaire and comparative intradermal tuberculin test using a cut-off for positivity of 4 mm, respectively.
Reported levels of cattle and wildlife contact by respondents was at 40%, 58.2% and 1.8%, were relatively proportional to herd level prevalence of cattle BTB at 64.8%, 58.1% and 5.9% in Blue lagoon, Lochinvar and Kazungula respectively. Although 42/106 (39.6%) of cattle owners had heard of BTB, only 3 (7%) had an idea on how the disease was spread. Cattle contact with wildlife was associated with high levels of awareness by cattle owners (chi2 = 43.5, df = 2, P < 0.001). Awareness of BTB in low prevalence settings was lower compared to high prevalence settings.
Our study has revealed low levels of awareness among cattle owners on BTB. These results could be useful for policy makers when planning mitigation measures to consider awareness levels by cattle owners for effective implementation. Such information is useful for determining sensitisation programs for cattle owners before mitigation. These results further provide useful insights that disease control is a multi-factorial process with cattle owners as an integral part that can support policy implementation.
在考虑缓解措施时，牛结核病（BTB）的牛主人意识对决策者至关重要。然而，据我们所知，人们对赞比亚牛主人对 BTB 的认识知之甚少。同样，这种知识在非洲内外也很少见。本研究调查了与高和低牛 BTB 流行环境中的牛主人意识相关的赞比亚牛 BTB 的流行病学特征。设计了一项横断面研究，并根据 106 名牛主人和牛群收集了数据；分别接受了访谈者管理的问卷调查和比较皮内结核菌素试验，阳性截断值为 4 毫米。
受访者报告的牛和野生动物接触水平分别为 40%、58.2%和 1.8%，与蓝泻湖、洛钦瓦尔和卡宗古拉的牛 BTB 群体流行率分别为 64.8%、58.1%和 5.9%相对成比例。尽管 106 名牛主人中有 42 名（39.6%）听说过 BTB，但只有 3 名（7%）知道该病的传播方式。牛与野生动物的接触与牛主人的高意识水平有关（卡方=43.5，df=2，P<0.001）。低流行环境中的 BTB 意识低于高流行环境。
我们的研究表明，牛主人对 BTB 的认识水平较低。这些结果对于政策制定者在规划缓解措施时考虑牛主人的意识水平以实现有效实施可能是有用的。这些信息对于在缓解之前确定牛主人的敏感化计划很有用。这些结果进一步提供了有用的见解，即疾病控制是一个多因素的过程，牛主人是一个不可或缺的组成部分，可以支持政策的实施。
