An Assessment of communal farmers’ knowledge and practices in controlling the spread of theileriosis: A case of Nerupiri area of Gutu
- Author
- Nyahunda, Viola
- Title
- An Assessment of communal farmers’ knowledge and practices in controlling the spread of theileriosis: A case of Nerupiri area of Gutu
- Abstract
- The study focused on an assessment of communal farmers’ knowledge and practices in controlling the spread of theileriosis which was a case of Nerupiri area of Gutu, Zimbabwe. The main aim of this study was to figure out if farmers could understand and be able to identify, manage and prevent theileriosis disease in their areas for cattle. Theileriosis is a disease which affect cattle and is caused by theilera bovis in cattle. The pathogen which is a disease causing agent is transmitted by ticks. I order to assess and determine depth of farmers’ knowledge, paper-based questionnaire were administered to 50 randomly sampled livestock farmers through face-to-face interviews. The study discovered that some farmers don’t have knowledge about theileriosis despite the disease wreaking havoc in their area. Some farmers were not able to identify, manage and prevent theileriosis in this area. As result, most farmers lost their cattle through death due to this disease in the period of 2020 up to 2023. The study concluded that there is knowledge gap about Theileriosis disease’s prevalence, epidemiology, symptoms and control among communal farmers. More so, to a greater extent farmer knowledge play a more important role in tick control and management practices because it has the capacity to influence behaviour towards disease control. Farmer knowledge can vary significantly depending on factors like education, experience and access to information.
- Date
- June 2025
- Publisher
- BUSE
- Keywords
- Communal farmers’
- Pest control
- Supervisor
- Mr. Pagute
- Item sets
- Department of Animal Sciences
