Meseret Tadesse Selato*

Arba Minch Agricultural Office, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

*Corresponding Author: Meseret Tadesse Selato, Arba Minch Agricultural Office, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Received: August 16, 2023 Published: January 05, 2023

Abstract

One of the most dangerous diseases in impoverished nations, particularly Ethiopia, is food-borne zoonotic infections. From October 2019 to February 2020, a cross-sectional study was carried out in Arba Minch town, particularly in and around the three randomly chosen kebeles (Woze, Delfana, and Mehalketema), to determine the community's awareness of milk- and meat-borne zoonosis and their attitudes toward and practices for controlling those diseases. Data collection methods included both closed- and open-ended questionnaire surveys. 138 responders in total were chosen. By asking respondents both open-ended and closed-ended structured questions during interviews, data was gathered. Each questionnaire was carefully reviewed following the interview. During the final data analysis, questionnaires with any cryptic or unclear responses were disregarded. The final questionnaire responses were entered into the spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, USA). Using SPSS version 20, additional descriptive data analysis including frequency, average, and percentage calculations were made. Most survey participants 89.1% had heard of zoonosis. Anthrax (18.8%), taeniasis (45.7%), and bovine tuberculosis (35.5%) were zoonotic illnesses named by the study participants among those that were discussed and known to respond.According to survey participants, zoonotic diseases are transmitted through bites (31.9%), contact (6.5%), ingestion (32.6%), and inhalation (11.6%) of infected animals. About 92.8% and 2.2% of respondents, respectively, drink unpasteurized milk and eat raw meat. In the end, it was determined that, according to the respondents' responses, the community still has a low level of understanding of zoonotic illnesses. Consequently, community education and awareness programs are needed to further enhance the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the community regarding zoonotic diseases.

Keywords: Arba Minch; Awareness; Community; Knowledge; Meat; Milk; Zoonotic Diseases

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Citation

Citation: Meseret Tadesse Selato. “Evaluation of Community Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Meat and Dairy Borne Zoonotic Diseases in Arbaminch Town, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia".Acta Scientific Veterinary Sciences 6.2 (2024): 36-44.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Meseret Tadesse Selato. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.