Graduate School of Education, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal.
Department of Geography and Population, Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2023 Feb 14;17(2):e0011082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011082. eCollection 2023 Feb.
The majority of Nepalese people are involved in farming. However, due to limited knowledge of zoonoses and poor preventive practices on the part of livestock farmers, vulnerabilities to zoonotic diseases are very high. The main objective of this study was to assess the regional variation in zoonoses-related knowledge and preventive practices of livestock farmers in different ecological regions of Nepal.
Descriptive cross-sectional quantitative research design was followed in the study. The total sample size was 380 livestock farmers from randomly selected three ecological regions of Nepal. Systematic sampling techniques were applied for data collection. Data were entered into an excel sheet and then imported into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The data were calculated using descriptive statistics. Univariate, and bivariate analyses were performed, and the result of the study was presented in the form of text and tables based on their nature.
Of the studied six zoonotic diseases, most of the respondents (95.8%) knew about zoonotic bird flu; 90.7% of them, were about rabies; and 54.2% knew about swine flu. However, a few respondents knew about bovine tuberculosis, neurocysticercosis, and brucellosis. Ecologically, the highest number of respondents in Nawalpur had knowledge of rabies (95.3%), and swine flu (61.6%), whereas 98.3% of them had knowledge of avian influenza in Tanahun; and 12.5% of neurocysticercosis in Manang. Regarding zoonoses preventive practices such as regular hand washing with soap water, mask-wearing, gloves, boots, the respondents' representation of 60.8%, 6.6%, 1.8%, and 1.3% respectively in such practices show that although these are easy and cost-effective, personal protective equipment (PPE), such preventive practices were extremely underperformed. Not only that, only 12% of respondents maintain a standard distance (>15m.) between their house and shed. Similarly, 17% still consumed meat from sick animals, and vaccination of livestock was also found poor coverage (36%) in the study.
Livestock farmers need to be more knowledgeable about many common zoonotic diseases, and their preventive practices still need improvement, with significant regional variation in the study. This has invited various zoonosis threats for them. Therefore, it is recommended that the interventional programs related to common zoonoses be conducted for livestock farmers to solve the problem.
大多数尼泊尔人从事农业。然而，由于家畜饲养者对人畜共患病的了解有限，以及预防措施不佳，因此他们极易受到人畜共患病的影响。本研究的主要目的是评估尼泊尔不同生态区家畜饲养者的人畜共患病相关知识和预防措施的区域性差异。
本研究采用描述性横断面定量研究设计。从尼泊尔随机选择的三个生态区中抽取了 380 名家畜饲养者作为总样本量。采用系统抽样技术进行数据收集。数据输入电子表格，然后导入统计软件包（SPSS）进行分析。使用描述性统计数据对数据进行计算。进行了单变量和双变量分析，并根据其性质以文本和表格的形式呈现研究结果。
在所研究的六种人畜共患疾病中，大多数受访者（95.8%）知道禽流感；90.7%的人知道狂犬病；54.2%的人知道猪流感。但是，一些受访者知道牛结核病、脑囊虫病和布鲁氏菌病。在纳瓦尔布尔，最高比例的受访者知道狂犬病（95.3%）和猪流感（61.6%）；而在塔纳胡恩，98.3%的人知道禽流感；在马南，12.5%的人知道脑囊虫病。关于人畜共患病的预防措施，如用肥皂水洗、戴口罩、戴手套、穿靴子等，受访者分别表示有 60.8%、6.6%、1.8%和 1.3%的人这样做，这表明尽管这些措施简单且具有成本效益，但个人防护设备（PPE）等预防措施的执行情况极差。不仅如此，只有 12%的受访者保持其房屋与畜舍之间的标准距离（>15m）。同样，17%的人仍然食用病畜的肉，而且研究发现牲畜接种疫苗的覆盖率也很低（36%）。
家畜饲养者需要更多地了解许多常见的人畜共患病，他们的预防措施仍需改进，而且研究中存在显著的区域差异。这为他们带来了各种人畜共患病的威胁。因此，建议为家畜饲养者开展与常见人畜共患病相关的干预计划，以解决这一问题。
