Assessment of Community Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Major Zoonotic Diseases in and Around Adama City, Central Ethiopia

The increase in urban and peri-urban livestock production furthermore poses a risk of introducing zoonoses that were formerly regarded as rural diseases to urban areas. Questionnaire survey was conducted from November 2015 to May 2016 in and around Adama city with the objectives of assessing the knowledge, attitude and practices of the community on common zoonotic diseases. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 384 respondents comprised of 285 from urban and 99 from peri-urban areas to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of community on common zoonotic diseases. Finding revealed that 94.5% of the respondents have heard about zoonoses and mentioned some of the diseases (94.5% rabies, 85.7% anthrax, taeniasis 74.5%, 67.7% tuberculosis 24.0% brucellosis, 15.1% hydatidosis and 5.7% others). Likewise, 78.4% have heard about these diseases from other sources like friends (35.3%), neighbors (25.1%) and mass media (18%), 11.5% of the respondents have heard about these diseases from families, 5.2% from teachers at school and electronic media. 37.5% of the respondents have listed either of the modes of disease transmission to human beings and 94.8% of them knew that these diseases can be transmitted from animal to humans; however, 89.6% did not believe on the reverse transmission to animals. Respondents have significantly agreed that consuming raw meat (59.4%) and milk (53.9%) transmits disease to humans despite of their high raw meat (70.6%) and milk (45.1%) consumption practices. Respondents have also listed diseases with high public health significance (rabies 48.7%, anthrax 20.8%, tuberculosis 16.9% and taeniasis 9.1 and the respondents stated some of the general preventive measures (38.3%). Therefore, the result of this study revealed that there was low level of awareness in the community indicating the need for detail study on epidemiological and socioeconomic significance of zoonotic diseases in humans and animals. It requires active involvement of veterinarian, human health professionals and municipality is recommended. This involvement needs to take place at every stage, from research, organizing, funding, planning, surveillance, creating public awareness, to implementing the actual control of zoonotic diseases.