Abstract
Livestock-wildlife interactions promote the transmission of a wide range of infectious diseases that constraint livestock production. We used a participatory appraisal approach to find out and rank infectious diseases of concern to pastoralists in a zone of intense wildlife-livestock interaction and another zone with limited interactions. Four villages were selected purposively in areas with intensive cattle-wildlife interactions (zone 1), and another two in areas with low to moderate cattle-wildlife interactions (zone 2). Data were collected in focus group discussions (FGDs) using participatory epidemiological methods (PE); each group had 8–13 participants. Results of impact matrix scoring from all sites indicated that malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), anthrax, foot and mouth disease (FMD), contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), east coast fever (ECF) and African animal trypanosomiasis (ATT), in decreasing order, had the highest impact on livestock production. A Kruskal–Wallis test revealed a significant difference in FMD annual prevalence between cattle age groups (p < 0.001) and was the highest in animals > 4 years (median score of 32.5, range, 10–50). FMD had the highest impact on milk production, but based on veterinary costs (treatment costs), it was ranked second to CBPP. The study provides information on disease priorities that occur in the target zones in Mara ecosystem and which the local pastoralists must consider when accessing key ecosystem services such as water and pasture.
Highlights
Livestock production is the main source of livelihoods and nutrition for over 300 million people residing in subSaharan Africa (Abdilatif et al 2018)
Donkeys were used for draught power to transport water and firewood, and were more likely to be stolen than the other livestock species
Our results showed that livestock production contributes significantly to the livelihoods of the Maasai, consistent with other findings (Bellet et al 2012; Ayele et al 2016)
Summary
Livestock production is the main source of livelihoods and nutrition for over 300 million people residing in subSaharan Africa (Abdilatif et al 2018). Several studies have demonstrated a substantial decline in wildlife populations due to increased competition for resources and degradation of ecosystems (Ogutu et al 2016). Such decline of wildlife populations might increase infectious disease transmission through indirect disease transmission processes. This is because a decline in animals that act as dead-end hosts for pathogens or those that limit contact between susceptible and infectious hosts erode the “dilution effect” that is thought to limit disease emergence in stable ecosystems (Huang et al 2016)
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