PASTORALISTS’ KNOWLEDGE ON PREVALENT CATTLE DISEASES AND PARASITES MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN NORTH-EAST, NIGERIA.

Abstract

In as much as there exist supportive vegetation and good management practices of cattle diseases and parasites, Cattle rearing can be proud not only in North east but throughout Nigeria. The study assessed pastoralists’ knowledge on prevalent cattle diseases and parasites management in North East, Nigeria. Specifically, the study identified the prevalent cattle diseases and parasites in the study area, identified pastoralists awareness of cattle diseases and parasites, assessed pastoralists knowledge of cattle diseases and parasites. Multi Stage sampling techniques were used to select four hundred and twenty pastoralists for the study. The pastoralists comprised 126, 105, 84 and 105 from Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba. Descriptive statistics and logit regression were used to analyse the data. Result revealed that contagious bovine Pleuropneumonia (97.8%) and Tsetse flies (99.3%) were the most prevalent cattle diseases and parasites. Contagious bovine Pleuropneumonia and Tape worms ranked 1st with a mean score of 2.81 and 2.77 were highly prevalent. Majority (97.8% and 99.0%) of the pastoralists were aware of bovine tuberculosis and Liver flukes. The result also showed that the pastoralists had a high knowledge of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia and Tape worms with a mean score of 1.89 and 1.86. Result of logit regression analysis revealed Blackleg (0.0092), Foot and Mouth Diseases (0.0317), Tick (0.0053), Tsetse flies (0.0002), Tapeworm (0.0655), were found to be positive and statistically significant at 5%. It is therefore recommended that extension services should target more pastoralists so as to aid their knowledge on the modern practices of cattle diseases and parasites management practices.