Participatory rural appraisal of livestock diseases among the Fulani community of the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Participatory rural appraisal, open-ended interview, proportional piling, key informants, animal disease control.Abstract
Occurrence of various livestock diseases particularly foot and mouth disease, infectious bursal
disease, contagiuos bovine pleuro pneumonia, babesiosis and trypanosomosis were established
among the Fulani community of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State. For this study,
different techniques of participatory rural appraisal such as open-ended interview, probing,
triangulation, transect and proportional piling with key informant/translator were applied in randomly
selected 30% of the Fulani community. Analysis of data indicated that haemorrhagic septicaemia was
the most important while babesiosis and contagious bovine pleuro pneumonia were the most prevalent
diseases in the community. Other significant livestock health problems recorded during appraisal
exercise were newcastle disease, fascioliasis, brucellosis, tick and tsetse fly infestation. There was no
evidence of rinderpest outbreak in the area of investigation during the last 5 years. Participatory rural
appraisal proved to be a useful tool to collect reliable data that can be utilized to empower and integrate
the rural livestock-owning commuinties in the control/eradication of animal diseases.
