Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Who will be affected?
Readers: No access to all 28 journals. We recommend accessing our articles via PubMed Central
Authors: No access to the submission form or your user account.
Reviewers: No access to your user account. Please download manuscripts you are reviewing for offline reading before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
Editors: No access to your user account to assign reviewers or make decisions.
Copyeditors: No access to user account. Please download manuscripts you are copyediting before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
Alam J, Alam J, Nadeem ur Rehman S, Chaudhry A, Athar Abbas M, Fatima Z, Wasif Malik M, Abbas Ranjha M, Iqbal Baig Z, Ashraf N, Ali Khan M, A. Ansari J, Ikram A
Assessment of Farmers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Related to Milk-borne Zoonosis in District Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Assessment of Farmers’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Milk-Borne Zoonosis in District Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu & Kashmir
Javaria Alam;
Javaria Alam;
Syed Nadeem ur Rehman;
Ambreen Chaudhry;
Muhammad Athar Abbas;
Zahida Fatima;
Muhammad Wasif Malik;
Muazzam Abbas Ranjha;
Zeeshan Iqbal Baig;
Nosheen Ashraf;
Mumtaz Ali Khan;
Jamil A. Ansari;
Aamer Ikram
ABSTRACT
Background:
The milk-borne zoonotic disease can be acquired by the consumption of non-pasteurized and infected dairy products. Zoonotic infections present a serious public health concern that is responsible for approximately 2.7 billion deaths annually worldwide. However, little is known about the attitudes and knowledge of the farmers regarding milk-borne zoonosis.
Objective:
This study was performed with an aim to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the farmers regarding milk-borne zoonosis.
Methods:
The cross-sectional KAP study was conducted in district Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu, and Kashmir between September 1st to October 30th,2019. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect the information from respondents regarding different aspects of milk-borne zoonosis. All the small dairy farms (n=56) with more than five animals in district Muzaffarabad were included in this study. Data were collected from respondents (n=100) with inclusion criteria of having a dairy experience of more than six months.
Results:
The findings show that almost 86% of the farmers were unable to name any milk-borne zoonotic disease. About 45.5% of the farmers were unaware of the fact that milk can be a potential source of disease transmission. None of the respondents had any idea about the pasteurization method and 50% of them had no habit of checking milk quality. However, 81% of the respondents prefer to use boiled milk. Almost, 28% of the farmers with high-level education were able to name at least one milk-borne zoonotic disease. The majority of the respondents (99%) did not receive any formal training about zoonotic diseases.
Conclusions:
According to the study, the overall knowledge of farmers regarding milk-borne zoonosis was not adequate. Despite having a positive attitude, the practices of the respondents regarding milk handling were found to be poor. Awareness about the important of zoonotic disease and their source of transmission should be created and to deal with zoonotic infections a One Health approach should be adopted.
Citation
Please cite as:
Alam J, Alam J, Nadeem ur Rehman S, Chaudhry A, Athar Abbas M, Fatima Z, Wasif Malik M, Abbas Ranjha M, Iqbal Baig Z, Ashraf N, Ali Khan M, A. Ansari J, Ikram A
Assessment of Farmers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Related to Milk-borne Zoonosis in District Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir