Socio-economic Impact of Brucellosis on Livestock Farmers in Southern and Western Provinces, Zambia

Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonotic and devastating disease that affects households’ potential to improve their well-being through trade in livestock and livestock commodities. Despite the disease being endemic in Zambia, there is inadequate information, on its socio-economic impact on the well-being of households rearing livestock. Therefore, a crosssectional study was conducted in Western and Southern provinces of Zambia to determine the impact of brucellosis on socio-economic well-being of livestock farmers at households. The specific objectives of the study were to determine losses and costs associated with brucellosis in livestock; determine socioeconomic wellbeing levels at the household; evaluate the linkages between brucellosis and socio-economic wellbeing status; assess the extent to which the current health policies address One Health practice and the attitude towards One Health practices among policy makers. Structured questionnaires, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key informants were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data in this research. All monetary losses were estimated in both domestic currency; the Zambian Kwacha (ZMW) and the equivalent international currency (USD); the exchange rate was 1 USD to 11.45 ZMW Zambian Kwacha (ZMW). The overall total losses attributed to brucellosis-related calf mortality, in the studied households was 1,535,800 ZM W (USD 134,131); 77,700 ZMW (USD 6,786.02) was due to milk losses and 13,240 ZMW (USD 1156.33) due to vaccination costs. Lack of money to pay for livestock health services was significantly associated with poor household socio-economic well-being (p = 0.003), while level of education of the household head was associated with the highest positive brucellosis impact (p = 0.005) on socio-economic wellbeing. Further, the alternative hypothesis that socio-economic wellbeing levels differ significantly where there is less impact of brucellosis in livestock and where such impact is higher, was confirmed (F = 11.268, p = <0.001). Consequently the null hypothesis was rejected. On the basis of these findings, it can be concluded that reduced cost of disease prevention and losses due to brucellosis can improve socio-economic well-being of livestock farmers in Western and Southern provinces of Zambia. Accordingly, in order to reduce costs and losses attributed to brucellosis, livestock services and surveillance systems for brucellosis should be prioritised and One Health collaboration framework should be adopted. Keywords— Brucellosis, socio-economic well-being, costs and