Survey of Goat Farmers' Compliance on Proper Herd Health Program Practices

Abstract

Good herd health management is a practice aimed to prevent the development and spread of diseases and reduce economic losses in farms. There is paucity of information with regards to farmers’ compliance on proper Herd Health Program (HHP) practiced by small ruminant farms in Malaysia. This survey was conducted to study farmers’ compliance on HHP practiced using selected goat farms (n=6) under the Ladang Angkat Program, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UPM. A structured questionnaire was developed based on the Skim Amalan Ladang Ternakan (SALT) by the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) of Malaysia. The scores were given in percentages according to the farmers’ knowledge and practice on every component of the HHP. All the farms surveyed were managed under intensive system mainly for meat production. Most farmers (83.3%) were aware of the existence of the herd health program. Farmers (n=6) scored 56±7% for overall HHP practice with maximum score on waste management (75%), followed by environmental management (73%), parasite control program (70%), biosecurity (67%), feeding management (59%), drug management (59%), disease monitoring program (54%), reproductive management (48%) and the least compliance was for vaccination program (40%). None of the farmers practiced the vaccination program in their farms. However, all farmers were willing to invest money for herd health program that guarantee long term profitability in the future. In conclusion, more attention and exposure need to be given on the HHP components that are less complied with by the farmers without neglecting the other components for future development of improved herd health programs.