The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

Table 16 -- Main ailments reported by livestock keepers and the health delivery
channels used to manage the ailments between 1998 and 2001
% (n = 171) of livestock keepers using:
Main ailment
CBAHWs Professionals a Drug shops b
Trypanosomiasis c 64.2 20.8 32.4
Tick-borne diseases 63.7 24.0 41.7
GIT parasites 60.4 14.8 49.3
Coughing 51.0 14.7 39.5
Stock diarrhea 28.5 4.4 31.1
Wounds 4.9 1.5 4.8
Source: Survey data, 2001.
a Professionals in this case refers to formally trained animal health personnel including
veterinarians and para-veterinarians in private and public practice.
b Use of veterinary drug shops entailed purchase of drugs from these outlets to facilitate
own treatment.
c Livestock keepers’ knowledge about trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases in the area
could stem from the activities of NGOs (like ITDG, GAA) and government institutions
(like KETRI, KARI) that have been actively involved in creating community awareness
on disease and vector identification and control (KETRI 2000).
About 66.1 percent (n = 171) of the livestock keepers indicated that they had
undertaken own treatment of their livestock during the year preceding the survey. Further
investigations to identify the source of knowledge that enabled them undertake own treatment
revealed that 45 of these livestock keepers (representing 39.8 percent of those undertaking
own treatment) had learnt this skill from CBAHWs. The rest had either attended training (not
linked to CBAHW programs), participated in farmer field days organized by drug companies,
or learned from the extension staff. The drugs used in own treatment were purchased from
veterinary drug shops, CBAHWs, and veterinary personnel. This implies that besides
providing curative services, CBAHWs are also a source of animal health knowledge and
veterinary drugs for other livestock keepers.
5.3 Characteristics of farmers using specific animal health delivery systems
Information collected on access to and use of different health delivery channels
revealed that livestock keepers could be stratified in specific groups based on their health
service channel preference and use. Of the 182 livestock keepers interviewed, about 43
percent used a combination of different health delivery channels, 29.1 percent used CBAHWs
exclusively, 18.6 percent used only veterinary drug shops, and 4.4 percent used only trained
veterinary personnel. 8 Table 17 shows the trends in the mean numbers of livestock kept for
these groups of livestock keepers stratified by health service delivery channel.
8 Eleven of these livestock keepers could not be conclusively classified in any of these categories.