Gizaw Solomon, Woldehanna Mengistu, Anteneh Habtamu, Ayledo Gewado, Awol Fasil, Gebreyohannes Gebreegziabher, Gebremedhin Berhanu, Wieland Barbara
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ministry of Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Front Vet Sci. 2021 Jun 7;8:601878. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.601878. eCollection 2021.
Livestock diseases are a priority problem for livestock keepers throughout Ethiopia. Livestock keepers have also singled out poor animal health service delivery, which is largely the domain of the public sector, as the major constraint to improving animal health and productivity. In the current study, we describe the animal health service delivery system and compile from five questionnaire surveys involving 4,162 livestock keepers to characterize animal health service delivery in Ethiopia. The mapping of the animal health service delivery system along the livestock value chain clearly highlights the role of informal animal health services and variations of roles of the private sector. Also, the survey results clearly showed that livestock keepers' access to, use of and satisfaction with animal health services significantly varied across livestock production systems, geographic locations, socioeconomic strata, and service providers. Livestock keepers in crop-livestock and agropastoral systems had 5.5 (odds ratio = 5.453, = 0.000) and 2.5 (odds ratio = 2.482, = 0.000) times more access to services in reference to the pastoral system. In reference to private veterinary clinics, livestock keepers reported higher access to services provided by all the other service providers, particularly to services provided by extension agents, drug shops and CAHWs. Similarly, better access was reported by male than female (odds ratio = 1.098; = 0.025) and wealthier than poorer (odds ratios = 1.40-1.79; = 0.000) farmers and pastoralists. In general, low access to services was reported, 32.7, 25.2, and 19.3% of the respondents reporting access in crop-livestock, agropastoral and pastoral systems, respectively. Effective demand for services was evaluated through proxy variables, namely number of visits to service providers and health expenditures over a year. Highland farmers used the services more often than pastoralists (odds ratio = 2.86; = 0.000), but pastoralists' expenses were significantly higher. Wealth (measured by livestock owned), gender and age also had significant effects on the use of services and expenditure on services. Satisfaction with services was evaluated based on four measures, namely availability (av), accessibility (ac), quality (qw), and timeliness (tm) of services. The average scores (out of 10) for av, ac, qw, and tm were 6.1, 5.9, 6.2, and 5.7, respectively. Principal component analysis was conducted to derive the latent variable "satisfaction" from the four measures, extracted only one factor, indicating the four variables are measuring the same construct (satisfaction). Regressing the latent variable satisfaction on the four measures gave significant ( = 0.000) values of 0.22, 0.20, 0.13, and 0.14 for av, ac, qw, and tm, respectively, indicating strong relationships between the latent variable satisfaction and its measures. There was a significant dissatisfaction with the public sector, with average scores of 0.06 and 0.19 for the public and private service providers, respectively. It can be concluded that livestock keepers in remote regions of the country, pastoralists, women, poorer, and older livestock keepers have less access to services. Satisfaction with services is low to medium and the major concerns of livestock keepers appears to be availability and accessibility of services. Based on our findings, we recommend an integrated, multi-sectoral involvement to improve the veterinary service delivery through improved veterinary infrastructure, public-private partnership, and animal health information system across the various livestock production systems.
牲畜疾病是埃塞俄比亚各地牲畜饲养者面临的一个首要问题。牲畜饲养者还指出,动物卫生服务提供不力(这在很大程度上是公共部门的领域)是改善动物健康和生产力的主要制约因素。在本研究中,我们描述了动物卫生服务提供系统,并从涉及4162名牲畜饲养者的五项问卷调查中进行汇总,以描述埃塞俄比亚的动物卫生服务提供情况。沿着牲畜价值链绘制动物卫生服务提供系统,清楚地凸显了非正式动物卫生服务的作用以及私营部门角色的差异。此外,调查结果清楚地表明,牲畜饲养者在获取、使用动物卫生服务以及对其满意度方面,在不同的牲畜生产系统、地理位置、社会经济阶层和服务提供者之间存在显著差异。与牧区系统相比,农牧结合系统和农牧混合系统中的牲畜饲养者获得服务的机会分别多出5.5倍(优势比 = 5.453,P = 0.000)和2.5倍(优势比 = 2.482,P = 0.000)。相对于私人兽医诊所,牲畜饲养者报告称,他们更容易获得所有其他服务提供者提供的服务,尤其是推广人员、药店和乡村动物卫生工作者提供的服务。同样,男性饲养者比女性饲养者(优势比 = 1.098;P = 0.025)以及富裕的饲养者比贫穷的饲养者(优势比 = 1.40 - 1.79;P = 0.000)报告称获得服务的机会更好。总体而言,报告获得服务机会较低,分别有32.7%、25.2%和19.3%的受访者表示在农牧结合、农牧混合和牧区系统中获得了服务。通过代理变量(即一年中拜访服务提供者的次数和医疗支出)评估了对服务的有效需求。高地农民比牧民更频繁地使用这些服务(优势比 = 2.86;P = 0.000),但牧民的支出明显更高。财富(以拥有的牲畜衡量)、性别和年龄对服务的使用和服务支出也有显著影响。基于服务的可得性(av)、可及性(ac)、质量(qw)和及时性(tm)这四项指标评估了对服务的满意度。av、ac、qw和tm的平均得分(满分10分)分别为6.1、5.9、6.2和5.7。进行主成分分析以从这四项指标中得出潜在变量“满意度”,仅提取了一个因子,表明这四个变量衡量的是同一个结构(满意度)。将潜在变量满意度对这四项指标进行回归,av、ac、qw和tm的P值分别为0.000时,系数分别为0.22、0.20、0.13和0.14,表明潜在变量满意度与其指标之间存在强关系。对公共部门存在显著不满,公共服务提供者和私人服务提供者的平均得分分别为0.06和0.19。可以得出结论,该国偏远地区的牲畜饲养者、牧民、女性、较贫穷和较年长的牲畜饲养者获得服务的机会较少。对服务的满意度为低到中等,牲畜饲养者主要关注的似乎是服务的可得性和可及性。基于我们的研究结果,我们建议通过改善兽医基础设施、公私伙伴关系以及跨各种牲畜生产系统的动物卫生信息系统,进行综合、多部门参与,以改善兽医服务的提供。