Impact of participatory training of smallholder pig farmers on knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding biosecurity for the control of African swine fever in Uganda
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Transboundary and emerging diseases
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
African swine fever, Biosecurity, Participatory training, Pig, Uganda
Citation
Dione, M. M., Dohoo, I., Ndiwa, N., Poole, J., Ouma, E., Amia, W. C., & Wieland, B. (2020). 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, 67(6), 2482-2493. DOI: 10.1111/tbed.13587