Poultry health services in Ethiopia: availability of diagnostic, clinical, and vaccination services.

Currently, there is a need for more and better poultry health services in Ethiopia. However, nationwide data showing the weaknesses of poultry health services are scanty. Hence, availability of diagnostic, vaccination, and clinical services for poultry was assessed. Focus group discussions and household questionnaire survey were conducted with poultry keepers in 10 districts. Lack of poultry health experts, clinical services, drugs, vaccination, and knowledge and skills were identified as top five key findings. In total, 31.6% of respondents reported availability of poultry diagnosis service. Having flock size of 11-20 chickens had higher probabilities of accessing better diagnosis service (AOR = 2.77; 95% CI: 1.12-3.64). Access to diagnosis was directly linked with the availability of veterinary clinics in their localities (AOR = 2.65; 95% CI: 1.16-6.63). Moreover, low access to treatment services (22.98%) was reported and traditional remedies with priority index of 0.68 were reported to be the most commonly used. Chicken flocks with a history of disease occurrence were more likely to have a decision to go for modern treatment services (AOR = 4.26; 95% CI: 2.28-7.95). Only 35.7% of chicken keepers had their flocks vaccinated, and this was irregularly and randomly given, mainly against Newcastle disease. Only 52.9% of them were vaccinated by trained animal health experts. Chicken flocks with availability of veterinary clinics within 5 km were more likely (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI: 1.03-2.54) to have access to vaccination services. Only 53.0% of the chicken flocks had availability of clinics and chicken flocks in Tigray (AOR = 2.15; 95% CI: 1.03- 4.52) and Oromia (AOR = 5.74; 95%CI: 2.51-13.10) had better availability of clinics. Chicken flocks found in Bako district were less likely (AOR = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.18-0.92). The low availability of diagnostic, vaccination, and clinical services shows that poultry health services in Ethiopia have not received attention despite its top national agenda. Hence, the existing low poultry health services need to be solved through public-private partnership, producing adequate poultry health experts, availing vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics in the local markets.