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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1514953
This article is part of the Research Topic One Health Approach in Addressing Microbial Food-Safety Challenges View all 6 articles

Zoonotic Diseases Awareness and Food Safety Practices Among Livestock Farmers in Nepal

Provisionally accepted
Deepak Subedi Deepak Subedi 1*ALOK DHAKAL ALOK DHAKAL 2Sumit Jyoti Sumit Jyoti 3Sanjay Paudel Sanjay Paudel 2,4Ganesh Ranabhat Ganesh Ranabhat 4Ananda Tiwari Ananda Tiwari 5Ahmad I. Al-Mustapha Ahmad I. Al-Mustapha 6,7,8*
  • 1 University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States
  • 2 Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal
  • 3 University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
  • 4 Agriculture and Forestry University, Bharatpur, Nepal
  • 5 Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 6 University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 7 University of Helsinki, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Helsinki, Finland
  • 8 Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Nigeria), Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Interactions between humans and livestock could increase the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. In addition, limited knowledge of zoonoses and foodborne diseases among livestock farmers could heighten the risks of foodborne illness and outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. This study evaluated the awareness of zoonotic diseases and preventive practices for zoonotic and foodborne diseases among livestock farmers of the Chitwan, Rupandehi, and Tanahun districts of Nepal by conducting a cross-sectional survey of 280 livestock farmers. They were recruited using the purposive sampling method from October to December 2022. Descriptive statistics revealed that most (72.1%; n=202/280) livestock farmers were aware of zoonosis. None of the farmers knew about the zoonotic nature of leptospirosis. Two-thirds of pig farmers (67%; n=12/18) were aware of zoonotic transmission of swine flu, and more than half of the poultry (58%; 50/86) farmers knew about zoonotic avian influenza. The majority of the farmers who had dogs (83%) and cats (89.4%) in their homes or farms knew that rabies can be transmitted to humans from dogs or cats.The multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that farmers from the Rupandehi district (aOR: 5.56; 95% CI: 2.18-14.22) and Chitwan (aOR: 6.52; 95% CI: 2.46-17.25) had a higher odds of having good preventive practices than those from Tanahun. Also, farmers who had no sickness in the past 6 months after consumption of animal products were three times (aOR: 2.98; 95% CI: 1.48-6.01) more likely to have better practices. Furthermore, secondary education (aOR: 3.64; 95% CI: 1.41-9.44) was a significant positive predictor of good zoonotic diseases and food safety preventive practices. Our study underscores the necessity to enhance Nepalese livestock farmers' awareness and practices regarding zoonotic and foodborne diseases. It emphasizes the importance of understanding risks, effective behavioral change strategies, and engaging farmers in developing zoonotic disease and foodborne illness prevention programs.

    Keywords: Food Safety, livestock farmers, Nepal, Preventive practice, risk, zoonosis

    Received: 22 Oct 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Subedi, DHAKAL, Jyoti, Paudel, Ranabhat, Tiwari and Al-Mustapha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Deepak Subedi, University of Georgia, Athens, 30602, Georgia, United States
    Ahmad I. Al-Mustapha, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.