TITLE:
Participatory Evaluation of the Relative Livestock Populations and the Assessment of the Status and Impacts of Newcastle Disease in Rural Communities of Two Northeastern States, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Waziri Ibrahim Musa, Sa’idu Lawal, Mohammed Bello, Paul Ayuba Abdu
KEYWORDS:
Participatory, Evaluation, Newcastle Disease, Rural, Communities
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.6 No.1,
January
18,
2016
ABSTRACT: Livestock is an important component of food security in many developing nations. However, animal diseases continue to undermine animal production and public health efforts thus widening poverty gap. Unfortunately, the conventional and what seems to be inefficient “top to bottom” disease surveillance and control policies are heavily relied upon such that negative impacts of diseases are underestimated. Participatory disease surveillance (PDS) techniques using semi-structured questioning assisted by key informants targeting focus groups were employed in 60 randomly selected villages of two Nigerian States during the years 2012 to 2014. Haemagglutination and ELISA tests to detect antibodies to Newcastle disease (ND) were conducted on 950 poultry sera. The status and economic burden of Newcastle disease and the relative livestock populations and some ethno-veterinary practices of these livestock farming communities were brought to the fore. Poultry, goats, cattle, sheep and pigs in descending order were the major livestock species kept in the study areas to which Kendalls Coefficient of Concordance (W = 0.9) agreed strongly. Accordingly, ND, lousiness, fowl pox and coccidiosis with percentage scores of ND-52%, Fowl Pox-31%, lousiness-17% and Salmonellosis-10% were important causes of poultry morbidity and mortality. ND sero-prevalence was 39%, relative morbidity; mortality and case fatality rates of 95%, 78% and 82% respectively were appraised. Again ND, coccidiosis, ectoparasitism and fowl pox were reported as seasonal poultry diseases (W = 0.6). Solanum nodiflorum and Momordica balsalmina were used to treat ND. Major livestock kept, and the ND status and effects in poultry in these livestock farming communities are here reported. Institutionalization of PDS would better inform strategic livestock policy reforms, and improve national food security and diseases surveillance and reporting system in Nigeria.