Abstract
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a viral notifiable zoonotic disease primarily of domestic ruminants that causes significant socio-economic impacts. Using the 2006–07 outbreak cases, this study aimed to establish the socio-economic impact of RVF and assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of livestock keepers towards controlling RVF in selected areas of Tanzania. Data were collected in Arusha, Manyara and Morogoro regions using questionnaires, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key informants. Results indicate that there was little knowledge on disease (all clinical signs scored <50%) and the difference between the three regions was statistically significant (P = 0.00459). Socio-economic impacts of RVF shown by this study included; animal and human deaths, disruption of livestock market chains, inability of pastoralists to achieve their daily demands, inability to obtain protein leading to malnutrition and monetary loss at individual and national level during control of the disease. These findings have demonstrated low knowledge of the community on RVF, thus, more education and engagement is needed in order to develop more effective and efficient control strategies.
Highlights
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an acute vector-borne viral zoonotic disease affecting domestic animals and humans (Davies and Martin 2006)
Goats, sheep and donkeys, while animals kept by agro-pastoralists in additional to those kept by pastoralists included chickens, pigs, dogs and cats
Rift Valley fever is a multi-disciplinary disease which demands a one heath approach in order to control it during the outbreaks
Summary
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an acute vector-borne viral zoonotic disease affecting domestic animals and humans (Davies and Martin 2006). The Rift Valley fever virus is thought to be maintained in nature at least in part by trans-ovarial transmission in flood water by Aedes mosquitoes during excess rainfall leading to floods referred to as ‘dambos’ (Dighe et al 2010; Jost et al 2010; LaBeaud et al 2007). It results into an abundance of vector mosquito species (Breiman et al 2008). The inter-epidemic infection of RVFV in domestic animals is increasingly being reported in different parts of Africa which in most cases passes undetected (Heinrich et al 2012; Sumaye et al 2013)
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