The farmers’ knowledge, attitude and practices about tick control in Gweri sub county, Soroti district.

Abstract

In Uganda, over 75% of the total losses in cattle are through debility, direct mortality, morbidity losses in milk, hides and beef have been attributed to ticks and TBDs and their control in cattle accounted for 86% of the total animal disease control costs. The most limiting factors to livestock production among the pastoralists and farmers in the entire tropic and the cattle corridor areas have been reported to be ticks, TBDs and other associated effect. A cross section study was carried out amongst the 80 respondents in Gweri sub-county in soroti district in the four parishes to assess the farmer’s knowledge, attitude and practices about tick control. A structured questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data which was analysed by SPSS software using statistical tests such as Chi square and logistic regression and later data presented in tables and graphs. The results revealed that (75.0%) of the respondents used Ixodicides as a tick control method and least number of respondents (25.0%) used manual removal as a tick control strategy. This study further presented that, level of education and knowledge of Ixodicides were significant to the method of tick control to be used. However, insignificant factors such as sex, animal kept, choice of Ixodicides, period of Ixodicides effect and Place of purchase of Ixodicides had no effect on the method of tick control. I recommend further studies be conducted on the effect of ticks and the losses encountered in their management in the same area of study.