Browsing by Author "Kasanga, Christopher"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices toward rodent-borne diseases in Ngorongoro district, Tanzania
(Journal of Public Health in Africa, 2023-01-12) Issae, Amina; Chengula, Augustino; Kicheleri, Rose; Kasanga, Christopher; Katakweba, Abdul
transmit diseases. Most of rodent-borne diseases are endemic in rural Africa and sporadically lead to epidemics. Ngorongoro district is inhabited by humans, livestock, and wild animals.Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward rodent-borne diseases among communities. The study used 3 focus groups, 20key informant interviews, and the questionnaire (N=352) to collect data. The study found that 8.52% of respondents had good knowledge, 35.5% had a positive attitude and 94.3% had good practices toward rodent-borne diseases. The study revealed that only28.13% of participants were aware of rodent-borne zoonoses. The majority of them (77.27%) believe that rodents are pests that destroy crops and do not transmit pathogens. Moreover, the results showed that the majority of them (82.9%) live in dilapidated huts that serve as rodent breeding places. Additionally, except for education and religion, the level of knowledge had no significant relationship with most of the participants’ demographic variables.When compared to individuals who didn’t attend school, those with secondary education (OR=7.96, CI=1.4-45.31, P=0.017) had greater knowledge of rodent-borne diseases and management.Similarly, to how attitude and practice were found to be consider-ably (r=0.3216, P=0.000) positively correlated, general knowledge and general practice scores were found to be significantly(r=0.1608, P=0.002) positively correlated. Despite showing good practices, the communities still lack knowledge of rodent-borne zoonosis. Rodent-borne disease education should be considered in Ngorongoro and other places.
Socio-economic impact of foot and mouth disease in wildlife- livestock interface and non-interface of Tanzania
(2015) Mdetele, Daniel; Seth, Misago; Kayunze, Kim; Kasanga, Christopher
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is still one of the major trans-boundary animal diseases (TADs) in Tanzania. The disease is an obstacle to development of the livestock sector because it adversely affect livestock production and trade of animals and animal products. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Serengeti ecosystem (Wildlife- livestock Interface) and in the Central part of Tanzania (Non-interface) with the aim of assessing the social and economic impacts of FMD among livestock keepers in the two ecosystems. Forty households were selected, 10 from each district and to each household, a structured questionnaire was administered. The results showed that, the social impacts due to, FMD outbreaks include food insecurity (85.0%), failure to meet education costs (90.0%) and medical costs (77.5%). The observed economic impacts of FMD were losses associated with treatment costs (87.5%), milk productivity (85.0%), draught power (80.0%), livestock market loss (67.5), lower weight gain (60.0%), lower fertility (37.5%), abortion (35.0%), death of animals (25.0%) and vaccine supply cost (2.5%). Statistically, there were no significant differences in observed impacts of FMD among livestock keepers from wildlife-livestock interface and those from the non-interface. The study found no significant difference in opinion among livestock keepers from wildlife-livestock interface and non-interface areas as well as among study districts on foot-and mouth-disease impacts. Higher percentages in case responses on social impacts and economic losses indicated magnitude of the problem and feelings of livestock keepers about FMD. However, lower percentage in case response on vaccine supply cost indicated that there is no control of FMD by vaccination.
A study of rift valley fever virus in Morogoro and Arusha regions of Tanzania - serology and farmers’ perceptions
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2015-11-18) Wensman, Jonas J; Lindahl, Johanna; Wachtmeister, Nica; Torsson, Emeli; Gwakisa, Paul; Kasanga, Christopher; Misinzo, Gerald
Introduction: Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonosis primarily affecting ruminants, resulting in epidemic abortions, fever, nasal and ocular discharges, haemorrhagic diarrhoea, and a high mortality rate among young animals. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arthropod-borne RNA virus occurring in epizootic periods associated with heavy rainfall. The last outbreak of RVF in Tanzania was in 2006 2007, resulting in severe economic losses and impaired food security due to greater number of deaths of livestock. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of antibodies against RVFV in sheep and goats in two different regions of Tanzania during an inter-epidemic period (IEP). In addition, the perception of important diseases among livestock keepers was assessed. Material and methods: A cross-sectional serological survey was conducted in three purposively selected districts in Arusha and Morogoro regions of Tanzania. Serum samples from 354 sheep and goats were analysed in a commercial RVFV competitive ELISA. At the sampling missions, a questionnaire was used to estimate the socio-economic impact of infectious diseases. Results and discussion: In total, 8.2% of the analysed samples were seropositive to RVF, and most seropositive animals were younger than 7 years, indicating a continuous circulation of RVFV in the two regions. None of the livestock keepers mentioned RVF as an important livestock disease. Conclusions: This study confirms that RVFV is circulating at low levels in small ruminants during IEPs. In spite of recurring RVF outbreaks in Tanzania, livestock keepers seem to have a low awareness of the disease, making them poorly prepared and thus more vulnerable to future RVF outbreaks.