Browsing by Author "Poole, Jane"

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    Impact of participatory training of smallholder pig farmers on knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding biosecurity for the control of African swine fever in Uganda
    (Transboundary and emerging diseases, 2020) Mainack Dione, Michel; Dohoo, Ian; Ndiwa, Nicholas; Poole, Jane; Ouma, Emily; Christine Amia, Winfred; Wieland, Barbara
    We evaluated the impact of a participatory training of pig farmers on knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of biosecurity relating to ASF control in two districts of Uganda using a randomized control trial (RCT). A total of 830 pig farmers from 32 villages were included in the study, with 425 farmers receiving training, while 405 did not. An item response theory model was used to assess the impact of the training on farmer's KAP. Logistic regression models were used to assess the factors that affected knowledge gain and change in attitude and practices after training. Focus group discussions (FGD) were carried out with selected farmers from the treatment group at the end of the intervention, to share their experiences and discuss potential factors that could hinder adoption of biosecurity in their communities. Results of the regression analyses showed that there was a significant effect of biosecurity training (p = .038) on gain in knowledge after 12 months, but there were limited changes in farmer's attitude and practice at 12 and 28 months after training. Pig production domain (peri-urban/urban production), group membership, gender (male) and education of the farmer positively influenced knowledge gain and attitude of farmers towards biosecurity. This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of training intervention on biosecurity practices for disease prevention or control. In addition, it breaks down the components of the biosecurity practices and documents the specific challenges to its uptake by the farmers. It therefore relaxes the assumption of knowledge constraint as a barrier to uptake. The results clearly show that knowledge is not the binding constraint to uptake of the biosecurity interventions.
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    Sero-prevalence of Taenia Solium cysticercosis in rural and urbansmallholder pig production settings in Uganda
    (Acta tropica, 2017) Kungu, Joseph M.; Dione, Michel M.; Ejobi, Francis; Harrison, Leslie J.S.; Poole, Jane; Pezo, Danilo; Grace, Delia
    The pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, is prevalent in Uganda although the prevalence has not been deter-mined in all areas of the country. A cross-sectional study, to determine the sero-prevalence of the parasitein pigs kept under rural and urban production settings, was carried out in three Ugandan districts, Masaka, Mukono and Kamuli. Serum samples from 1185 pigs were tested for the presence of T. solium cysticer-cosis antigen using the HP10 antigen-ELISA (Ag-ELISA) and the ApDia Ag-ELISA assays. Using parallel interpretation of the two tests showed lower levels of observed prevalence of T. solium in rural pro-duction settings (10.8%) compared to urban (17.1%). Additionally, Maximum Likelihood Estimation forevaluating assays in the absence of a gold standard, using TAGS on the R platform, estimated the true sero-prevalence to be lower in rural production setting, 0.0% [0.0–3.2%; 95% confidence interval (CI)] thanin urban production setting, 12.3% (4.2–77.5% CI). When the sensitivity/specificity (Se/Sp) of the assays were estimated, assuming conditional independence of the tests, HP10 Ag-ELISA was more sensitive and specific [(Se = 53.9%; 10.1–100% CI), (Sp = 97.0%; 95.9-100% CI)] than the ApDia assay [(Se = 20.2%;1.5–47.7% CI), (Sp = 92.2%; 90.5–93.9% CI)]. Subject to parasitological verification, these results indicate there may be a need to implement appropriate control measures for T. solium in the study areas.