摘要

This study has presented the trend of Fanners' competencies on identification of lumpy skin disease causes symptoms and management practices in mafikeng municipality of North-West Province South Africa. A large sample size technique of n >= 30 was used to select livestock fanners and a structured questionnaire which was designed based on review of related literature and objectives of the study was used to collect data from the sample. The results on the personal characteristics of fanners shows that 63.3% of the respondents were between 20-30 years age bracket all are male at least 93% of the respondents had formal education albeit at primary and secondary school levels only about 47% had between 11 and 20 years fanning experience 77% had their farms ranging from 20-30 km to the nearest city at least 40% had farm size >100 ha and at least 72% of the respondents had 50 cattle per herd size. About 67% of the respondents indicated that they use dam while the remaining 33% rely on rivers in the study area. Respondents indicated that the mosquito is a popular LSD vector and 97% did not use any control methods. Majority of the respondents indicated that the prevalent symptoms of LSD are lumps on the skin (80%) loss in body condition (80%) loss of appetite (80%) swollen limbs (80%) abortion (80%) and weakness and lesions around and inside the mouth (80%). The most prevalent LSD management methods are the use of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory (73.3%) and vaccination (83.3%). The study recommends improvement in. the provision of veterinary extension services in. order to curtail the effect of LSD in the study area.

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