Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Among Small Scale Dairy Farmers on Milk- Borne Zoonotic Diseases, North Showa Zone, Ethiopia

Accepted: 29/06/2016 Abstract Ethiopia is one of low income countries that are often faced with enormous case of disease of animal origin. Among other factors, community awareness has an important impact on the control of Zoonotic diseases. A questionnaire-based survey of respondents' knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) pertinent to milk-borne zoonoses among dairy farmers (n=225) was conducted. The result demonstrated that respondents had knowledge concerning the existence of zoonotic diseases such as Rabies (62.7%), Tuberculosis (59.6%), Anthrax (57.3%), Salmonellosis (53.3%), Tapeworm (47.6%) and Brucellosis (22.2%). However, low level of knowledge on some of the mechanisms of disease transmission from animals to humans such as assisting with cow birth (15.6%), slaughtering animals (47.6%) and preparing their skins (36.9%) was evident and this necessitates the need for intervention via creating awareness on the possible risk of the above activities. The low level of attitude observed regarding the possibility of contracting zoonotic diseases from apparently healthy cattle/animals (18.7%), and the possibility of milk contamination from clinically asymptomatic individuals (37.3%) are also issues which need urgent intervention. Education level was found to be statistically significantly influencing the attitude of respondents on drinking raw milk and the possible risk of zoonotic disease from apparently healthy cattle/animals (p<0.05). Awareness creation and training programmes for the members of the dairy producers’ cooperative union on milk-borne zoonotic disease and their transmission mechanisms may help the effort in zoonotic disease control and hence reduce public health risk of milk-borne zoonoses in the study area.