Knowledge and perceptions of smallholder dairy farmers of cattle disease burdens in selected agro-ecological zones of Uganda

Diseases have continued to affect production and productivity in smallholder dairy farming systems in Uganda. This study sought to establish farmers knowledge and perceptions of disease burden in the Eastern Semi-Arid Zone (ESAZ), Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) and Western Rangelands (WR) agro-ecological zones (AEZs). A structured questionnaire was administered to 150 farm household heads or cattle attendants. Data analysis by cross tabulations was done using SPSS Statistical Software and descriptive statistics generated in XLSTAT. Linear Discriminant analysis and Multivariate Analysis of Variance were computed to establish significant relationships (P<0.05) between variables. East Coast fever (ECF), calf scours, foot rot, mastitis and fascioliasis were reported of high prevalence (>50%), while brucellosis and eye infection had low prevalence (<16.7%). Season, age and breed of cattle were significantly associated with severity, morbidity, mortality and treatment costs in all AEZs. Morbidity and mortality were higher during the long (4.5; 0.7) than short rains (3.1; 0.6), respectively. Comparatively, average treatment costs were higher during the short rains (US$ 22) compared to long rains (US$ 17) each rains lasting three months. Results of our study show that some diseases were common to all AEZs, yet ESAZ had a higher disease burden than WR and LVB.