Abstract
Aim:We investigated the attitude of pets or livestock owning households in a university community to animal health care services and assessed the knowledge and awareness level of the residents on zoonoses.Materials and Methods:Structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on demography, pet or livestock ownership, animal health care seeking behavior, awareness and knowledge of zoonoses from 246 households. We did descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis to determine the level of association in discrete variables between owners and non-owners of pets or livestock at a significant level of p<0.05.Results:Of the 246 respondents, 80 (32.5%) were either pet or livestock owners. The animal health care seeking behavior of the 80 pets or livestock owners in terms of treatment and vaccination was 70%. Of the 56 (70%) who provided health care services for their animals, about 48 (85.7%) engaged the services of a veterinarian. Dog owning households (42) had the highest frequency of treating their pets against endoparasites (97.6%); ectoparasites (81%) and vaccination against diseases (73.8%). Of the 246 respondents, only 47 (19.1%) have heard of the term zoonoses. Of the considered zoonoses; their awareness of rabies (79.3%) was the highest, followed by Lassa fever (66.3%), the least was pasteurellosis with 18.7%. Having pets or livestock was significantly associated (p=0.04) with rabies awareness. However, there is no significant difference in the level of awareness of zoonoses; knowledge of zoonoses, knowledge of prevention of zoonoses and knowledge of risk of zoonoses between owners and non-owners of pets or livestock.Conclusion:The animal health care seeking behavior of households with pets or livestock is good and should be encouraged. Public education should be created for other zoonoses aside from rabies, Lassa fever, and avian influenza.
Highlights
Pets are companion animals, domesticated for pleasure rather than utility
Public education should be created for other zoonoses aside from rabies, Lassa fever, and avian influenza
This is similar to the observation of Awosanya and Adebimpe [10] who reported a similar association between rabies awareness and owning a dog in a university community in Nigeria
Summary
Pets are companion animals, domesticated for pleasure rather than utility They have psycho-social effects on their owners and are useful in the management of loneliness and stress [1]. Livestock such as pigs, goats, sheep, cow, and poultry are reared for food and other general purposes such as fertilizer and fuel, hides, and skins. Goats, sheep, cow, and poultry are reared for food and other general purposes such as fertilizer and fuel, hides, and skins It is the main stay of resource poor farmers who used livestock rearing as a means to an end [2]. Because of the major roles animals play in the life of humans; adequate health and care from qualified animal health providers should be made available to the pets and livestock; and veterinarians have been saddled with the role of providing information regarding prevention, control and notification of disease outbreaks; risk analysis, epidemiological surveillance and zoning; and administration of required treatments [3,4].
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