Moliso Mesfin Mekonnen, Molla Wassie, Arke Asrat, Nana Tesfalem, Ayele Zewudie Firdawok, Tibebu Abebe, Haile Aynalem, Rekik Mourad, Magnusson Ulf, Wieland Barbara, Knight-Jones Theodore
Animal and Human Health Program, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 Oct 21;11:1371571. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1371571. eCollection 2024.
Diseases have a negative impact on production and profitability of small ruminants. A good herd health program can decrease the number of sick animals and improve herd performance.
In a longitudinal study, small ruminant herd health interventions such as community-based strategic gastrointestinal (GI) parasite control, prevention and control of major respiratory diseases and capacity development activities were implemented. In four districts of Ethiopia, where the Community Based Breeding Program (CBBP) is implemented, morbidity and mortality data were collected from January 2018 to July 2021 in 1047 smallholder farms with the objective of evaluating the impact of herd health interventions. A total of 2,643 sick animals and 516 deaths of small ruminants were recorded during the study period. The disease cases were categorized into eight groups: gastrointestinal, neurological, reproductive, respiratory, skin, systemic, other diseases (eye disease, foot disease etc) and unknown diseases. Chi-square and proportions were used to analyze morbidity and mortality by district, agro-ecological zone and age of the animal.
The data showed that the general trend in the occurrence of cases and morbidity rate were decreasing from 2018 to 2021 in intervention villages. Overall, the morbidity rate in young animals (7.36%) was highier than in adults (3.49%) and the mortality rate difference between young and adult animals was also statistically significant ( < 0.001). The morbidity and mortality rates varied significantly ( < 0.001) among districts and among agro-ecologies. According to the data, treating and following up of infected animals reduced the mortality rate significantly. The relative risk of death in treated animals after the case reported was 0.135. Generally, the intervention impact analysis revealed that morbidity rate was significantly decreased ( = 0.009) in intervention years (6.31% in 2018 to 3.02% in 2021) and that herd health interventions provide an added value.
Generally, herd health intervention had significant impact in reducing the morbidity rates in years and treatment and follow up of sick animals due to early reporting reduced mortality rate significantly. It is recommended that the herd health management should be the core activity under small ruminant production programs.
疾病会对小型反刍动物的生产和盈利能力产生负面影响。良好的畜群健康计划可以减少患病动物的数量并提高畜群性能。
在一项纵向研究中，实施了小型反刍动物畜群健康干预措施，如基于社区的战略性胃肠道（GI）寄生虫控制、主要呼吸道疾病的预防和控制以及能力发展活动。在埃塞俄比亚实施基于社区的育种计划（CBBP）的四个地区，于2018年1月至2021年7月在1047个小农户农场收集了发病率和死亡率数据，目的是评估畜群健康干预措施的影响。在研究期间共记录了2643例患病动物和516例小型反刍动物死亡。疾病病例分为八组：胃肠道疾病、神经疾病、生殖疾病、呼吸道疾病、皮肤疾病、全身性疾病、其他疾病（眼病、足病等）和不明疾病。使用卡方检验和比例分析按地区、农业生态区和动物年龄划分的发病率和死亡率。
数据显示，干预村庄中病例发生的总体趋势和发病率从2018年到2021年呈下降趋势。总体而言，幼龄动物的发病率（7.36%）高于成年动物（3.49%），幼龄动物和成年动物之间的死亡率差异也具有统计学意义（<0.001）。发病率和死亡率在不同地区和不同农业生态环境之间存在显著差异（<0.001）。根据数据，对感染动物进行治疗和随访可显著降低死亡率。病例报告后治疗动物的死亡相对风险为0.135。总体而言，干预影响分析表明，干预年份的发病率显著降低（=0.009）（从2018年的6.31%降至2021年的3.02%），并且畜群健康干预措施提供了附加值。
总体而言，畜群健康干预在降低年度发病率方面具有显著影响，对患病动物的治疗和随访由于早期报告而显著降低了死亡率。建议畜群健康管理应成为小型反刍动物生产计划的核心活动。
