Assessment of community knowledge, attitude and practices toward bovine tuberculosis in Jinka Town, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis is yet a major public health problem throughout the world, including African countries like Ethiopia. This is due to the lower knowledge, attitude, and practice of the people about the disease. A cross-sectional study was carried out from March 2023 to July 2023 to assess the community knowledge, attitude, and practice on Bovine Tuberculosis in Jinka Town. Questionnaire survey and retrospective data were used as tools for data collection.  Among 382 respondents, 254 (66.5%) knew about Bovine tuberculosis, whereas 128 (33.5%) respondents did not have any idea about the disease.  Except sex, other predictors like age, marital status, educational level, and occupation were significantly associated with knowledge and preventive practices towards Bovine tuberculosis. Respondents had misconceptions on zoonotic importance of the disease, and 95 (24.87%) respondents consume raw milk. Regarding the retrospective data result, among 1278 patients examined for Tuberculosis, 316 (24.7%) and 5 (0.39%) were positive for pulmonary and extrapulmonary  Tuberculosis in 2020 G.C. During 2021 G.C, among 1066 patients examined for Tuberculosis, 190 (17.8%) and 12 (1.12%) patients were positive for pulmonary and extrapulmonary  Tuberculosis respectively. Number of patients for pulmonary and extrapulmonary was increased to 18.25% and 4% respectively, in 2022 G.C. Since there were misconceptions among the respondents, awareness creation and detailed investigation on the status of Bovine and human Tuberculosis were recommended.