Brucellosis Disease Evaluating the Education (Thesis Sample)

BRUCELLOSIS DISEASE: EVALUATING THE EDUCATION AND AWARENESS LEVEL AMONG ANIMAL FARMERS IN THE CITY OF MECCA, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA.
STUDENT NAME
[NAME OF INSTRUCTOR]
[UNIVERSITY]
THE THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN IN PART FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF AGRICULTURE
SEPTEMBER 2015
Acknowledgements
I express my gratitude to the following for their support in assisting me complete this research my supervisor, colleagues and parents.
Table of Content TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Acknowledgements PAGEREF _Toc430845133 \h iiTable of Contents PAGEREF _Toc430845134 \h iiiList of Figures PAGEREF _Toc430845135 \h ivList of Tables PAGEREF _Toc430845136 \h vAbstract PAGEREF _Toc430845137 \h viiiBackground PAGEREF _Toc430845139 \h 11.2 Problem Statement PAGEREF _Toc430845140 \h 21.3 Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc430845141 \h 31.4 Research Objectives PAGEREF _Toc430845142 \h 31.5 Significance of the Study PAGEREF _Toc430845143 \h 41.6 The Study Area PAGEREF _Toc430845144 \h 41.7 Limitations of the Study PAGEREF _Toc430845145 \h 5Methods PAGEREF _Toc430845146 \h 6Justification for survey design PAGEREF _Toc430845147 \h 6Data collection and collation PAGEREF _Toc430845148 \h 7Data analysis PAGEREF _Toc430845149 \h 7The analysis of people’s knowledge on the brucellosis disease in farmers’ animals PAGEREF _Toc430845150 \h 8The research assumptions PAGEREF _Toc430845151 \h 8Identified research philosophy PAGEREF _Toc430845152 \h 8The sociological data PAGEREF _Toc430845153 \h 9The research questions and the interviews PAGEREF _Toc430845154 \h 9Ethical considerations of the research PAGEREF _Toc430845155 \h 10: Results PAGEREF _Toc430845156 \h 10General research Observations PAGEREF _Toc430845157 \h 103.1Awareness Levels PAGEREF _Toc430845166 \h 143.2Risk Knowledge PAGEREF _Toc430845182 \h 243.3Prevention PAGEREF _Toc430845184 \h 254.0 Discussion PAGEREF _Toc430845186 \h 284.1Suggestion for further research PAGEREF _Toc430845187 \h 304.2Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc430845188 \h 30References PAGEREF _Toc430845189 \h 31Appendices PAGEREF _Toc430845190 \h 34Appendix A: Participant Consent Letter PAGEREF _Toc430845191 \h 34Appendix B: Risk Knowledge among the respondents PAGEREF _Toc430845192 \h 39
List of Figures
TOC \h \z \c "Figure" Figure 1 Gender Results PAGEREF _Toc430837215 \h 11
Figure 2 Age results PAGEREF _Toc430837216 \h 12
Figure 3 Educational level results PAGEREF _Toc430837217 \h 13
Figure 4 Number of Years in Farming results PAGEREF _Toc430837218 \h 14
Figure 5 Results of the question: Are you Aware of Brucellosis? PAGEREF _Toc430837219 \h 15
Figure 6. Results of the question: Are you Familiar with the Disease Brucellosis? PAGEREF _Toc430837220 \h 16
Figure 7 Results of the question: Do you know the common signs and symptoms that are related with the Brucellosis disease? PAGEREF _Toc430837221 \h 17
Figure 8 Results of the question: Have any of your animals suffered from this disease? PAGEREF _Toc430837222 \h 18
Figure 9 Results of the question: Do you think that there are ways which farmers can use to prevent animals from getting this disease? PAGEREF _Toc430837223 \h 19
Figure 11 Results of the question: Have you ever carried out any vaccination process on your animals? PAGEREF _Toc430837224 \h 21
Figure 12 Results of the question: After the vaccination, how do you dispose of some of the instruments that you used in the vaccination process? PAGEREF _Toc430837225 \h 23
List of Tables
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u
Table 1 Gender results PAGEREF _Toc430845092 \h 10
Table 2 Age Results PAGEREF _Toc430845094 \h 11
Table 3 Educational level results PAGEREF _Toc430845096 \h 12
Table 4 Number of Years in Farming results PAGEREF _Toc430845098 \h 13
Table 5 Results of the question: Are you Aware of Brucellosis? PAGEREF _Toc430845101 \h 14
Table 6.Results of the question: Are you Familiar with the Disease Brucellosis? PAGEREF _Toc430845103 \h 15
Table 7 Results of the question: Do you know the common signs and symptoms that are related with the Brucellosis disease? PAGEREF _Toc430845105 \h 16
Table 8 Results of the question: Have any of your animals suffered from this disease? PAGEREF _Toc430845107 \h 18
Table 9 Results of the question: Do you think that there are ways which farmers can use to prevent animals from getting this disease? PAGEREF _Toc430845109 \h 19
Table 10 Results of the question: Did you ever involve the service of a professional for example a Vet? PAGEREF _Toc430845111 \h 20
Table 11 Results of the question: Have you ever carried out any vaccination process on your animals? PAGEREF _Toc430845112 \h 20
Table 12 Results of the question: After the vaccination, how do you dispose of some of the instruments that you used in the vaccination process? PAGEREF _Toc430845114 \h 22
Table 13 Table investigating the Risk Knowledge among the respondents PAGEREF _Toc430845117 \h 24
Table 14 Table investigating the Prevention Measures among the respondents PAGEREF _Toc430845119 \h 25
Abstract
Improving farmer’s knowledge among livestock keeping farmers was found to have positive impact on the reduction of most of zoonotic infections. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the education and awareness level of brucellosis disease among animal farmers in the city of Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study objectives were to assess the perception of the farmer’s knowledge of the disease for instance knowledge on the vaccine, usage and storage. Secondly, the study sought to examine the awareness level especially the dangers the disease cause to humans. Finally, the study sought to know whether the animal farmers are taking the right preventive measures to minimize the spread of the disease as required. The study subject was farmers who lived in the City of Mecca where every year close to 10millionto15million animals are slaughtered during the religious festivals (pilgrimage) in the city. The research design was descriptive survey methodology that was considered ideal due ton its ability to get enough information from a large area. This study used the mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Besides, semi- structured interviewed was used to collect data from the Ministry of Agriculture to get more information on annual reports and vaccines. The study found out that despite the study population reported having attained some levels of education only 30.1% knew the vulnerability the animals infected could cause to their human lives. This discrepancy on high level of education and knowledge gap in awareness levels by farmers could be attributed mix- match of trainings, and the possibility of some farmers had lied on their education levels. Besides, the farmers also reported that there was less government intervention in supporting them fight against the disease. Farmer’s risks behaviors like selling unpasteurized milk, eating animals infected by the disease and avoiding not seeking for consultations among veterinarians in the areas were cited to be among the high-risk behavior factors.
Background
Brucellosis is a zoonotic infection that mainly persists in areas where the disease control and preventive mechanism among animal farmers are low and ineffective. This disease was first discovered in Hippocrates’ time however, the organism causing the disease was later isolated in 1887 by David Bruce, who by then was a British Army physician (Garcia del Pozo & Solera, 2012). The disease results in reproductive failure in livestock and febrile diseases in human’s beings, therefore, making it one of the diseases that easily raises a public health concern. In its initial beginnings, Brucella was classified into six groupings; Brucella melitensis, Brucella ovis, Brucella neotomae, Brucella abortus and Brucella suis. Consequently, researchers over the past years developed additional four species as the discovery spans to marine mammals, infected human breast, and rodents (Bonfoh et al. 2012). One of the most significant characteristics of Brucella was its ability to penetrate up to the endothelial reticulum thereby infecting the macrophages. The disease acts like facultative intracellular parasites and affects humans beings through contamination of dairy products, abrasions in the skin surfaces, consumption of contaminated meat, conjunctiva inoculation and inhalation of infectious aerosols. Generally, the most common clinical symptoms of brucella range from weaknesses, fever, sweating, weight loss, lethargy, decreased appetite, and psychological symptoms. Cattle and other domestic animals may show various signs ranging from abortions, swollen udders, swollen testicles, nervousness, and fever (Karcaaltincaba, Sencan & Kandemir, 2010).
Researchers have established that Brucellosis often spread through contact with infected materials especially placenta of infected animals (Al-Shamahy, Whitty &Wright2000). Additionally, human beings can get brucellosis through direct contact with discharges from infected animals as well as drinking raw milk from the infected animals. In animals, the disease can spread through drinking water, and licking discharge from infected livestock. However, brucellosis is preventable and only requires some literacy levels among animal’s farmers to be able to contain the disease. Studies on preventive mechanism of brucellosis have cited practicing strict biosecurity by all farmers especially when handling aborted fetuses, early testing, vaccination and isolating affected animals (quarantine). Radwan et al (1983) held that the first step in controlling brucellosis is accurate diagnosis of the disease and acting shiftily with remedial measures to curb its spread. Scientists have developed several tests for brucellosis diagnosis such as serological tests such...