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R esearch
(Published online:
10-07-2015)
5.
Animal health care seeking behavior of pets
or livestock owners and knowledge and awareness on zoonoses in a
university community - Emmanuel J. Awosanya and H. O.
Akande
Veterinary World, 8(7): 841-847
doi:
10.14202/vetworld.2015.841-847
Emmanuel J. Awosanya:
Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine,
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo,
Nigeria; emmafisayo@yahoo.com
H. O.
Akande: Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive
Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan,
Ibadan,
Oyo, Nigeria;
tomilolaanne22@googlemail.com
Received:
09-02-2015, Revised: 05-06-2015, Accepted: 12-06-2015, Published
online: 10-07-2015
Corresponding author:
Emmanuel J. Awosanya, e-mail: emmafisayo@yahoo.com
Citation:
Awosanya EJ, Akande HO
(2015) Animal health care seeking behavior of pets or livestock
owners and knowledge and awareness on zoonoses in a university
community, Veterinary World 8(7): 841-847.
Abstract
Aim:
We investigated the attitude of pets or livestock owning
households in a university community to animal health care
services and assessed the knowledge and awareness level of the
residents on zoonoses.
Materials and Methods: Structured questionnaire was used to
obtain information on demography, pet or livestock ownership,
animal health care seeking behavior, awareness and knowledge of
zoonoses from 246 households. We did descriptive statistics and
bivariate analysis to determine the level of association in
discrete variables between owners and non-owners of pets or
livestock at a significant level of p<0.05.
Results: Of the 246 respondents, 80 (32.5%) were either pet or
livestock owners. The animal health care seeking behavior of the
80 pets or livestock owners in terms of treatment and vaccination
was 70%. Of the 56 (70%) who provided health care services for
their animals, about 48 (85.7%) engaged the services of a
veterinarian. Dog owning households (42) had the highest frequency
of treating their pets against endoparasites (97.6%);
ectoparasites (81%) and vaccination against diseases (73.8%). Of
the 246 respondents, only 47 (19.1%) have heard of the term
zoonoses. Of the considered zoonoses; their awareness of rabies
(79.3%) was the highest, followed by Lassa fever (66.3%), the
least was pasteurellosis with 18.7%. Having pets or livestock was
significantly associated (p=0.04) with rabies awareness. However,
there is no significant difference in the level of awareness of
zoonoses; knowledge of zoonoses, knowledge of prevention of
zoonoses and knowledge of risk of zoonoses between owners and
non-owners of pets or livestock.
Conclusion: The animal health care seeking behavior of
households with pets or livestock is good and should be
encouraged. Public education should be created for other zoonoses
aside from rabies, Lassa fever, and avian influenza.
Keywords: attitude, education, households,
Nigeria, treatment, vaccination.
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