Assessment of Public Awareness on Common Zoonotic Diseases in Lalo Kile District, Kellem Wollega Zone, Ethiopia

A questionnaire based cross sectional survey was conducted to assess the awareness of the community about common zoonotic diseases in Lalo Kile District, Kellem Wollega Zone, Ethiopia. A total of 440 (292 male and 148 female) respondents were participated during the interview. A structured questionnaire was prepared and used to ask the respondents categorized into different levels about their knowledge and awareness on common zoonotic diseases in the area. From the total respondent category 82.50% have awareness on rabies, 81.82% have a concept about taeniasis, 81.36% know about bovine tuberculosis, 79.55% know about anthrax and 72.05% know about hydatidosis. These respondents have a concept about transmission, clinical signs, effect and way of control and prevention of the common zoonotic diseases. From the different category of the respondents, educational level and occupational status are statistically significant (P<0.05). 83.86% and 86.36% of the respondents consume raw meat and raw milk, respectively. Most of the respondents know that zoonotic diseases can be transmitted from animals to human, but very few of them know that the disease can be transmitted from human to animals. Therefore, the general continuous awareness creation and teaching of the community about zoonotic disease is very important.


Introduction
Zoonotic diseases are diseases that can be transmitted and distributed between animals harboring the disease and humans, and having different public health burdens and it is known that 75% of emerging pathogens fall within the category of zoonotic diseases [1]. These zoonotic diseases are widely distributed in Ethiopia and include bovine tuberculosis, taeniasis, hydatidosis [2], and rabies [3]. Many zoonotic diseases are caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and other parasites, with both domestic and wild animals acting as reservoirs for the pathogens. Most of them cause health problems in human showing different clinical signs and if not treated may cause death [4].
People are mainly dependent on animals and animal products and they have very close relationship or contact with animals. They use raw animal products as source of feed that may predispose them to zoonotic diseases and different infections [5]. The large effect on human health and livelihood, many cases of illness and large amount of death every year, is caused by endemic zoonoses that are persistent health problems all over the world [6].
Zoonotic diseases can be transmitted in a different ways including air (aerosol), direct contact, contact with an inanimate object that harbors the disease, oral ingestion and insect transmission [7]. In both developing and developed countries, emergence of new zoonoses might be the result of either newly identified pathogens or agents that are already known, usually appearing in animal species in which the disease had not formerly been detected [8].
The public awareness and understanding in the public those having contact with animals and use animal product has received much attention now days and it is somewhat helpful for reduction of transmission of zoonotic diseases. Hence, building of well-governed public health and animal health system, emphasizing the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination, abandon of traditional behaviors that can prone to zoonotic diseases and commitment of decision makers to obtain the necessary political, legal and financial support are required issues in minimizing of the impact of zoonotic diseases [2,[9][10]. In the area even though zoonotic diseases were widely observed, most people have contact with animals and consumes feed of animal origin including consumption of raw meat and raw milk. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness of the public on the common zoonotic diseases in the study area.

Study Area
The study was conducted in Lalo Kile District of Kellem Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. The district is geographically found at 08°45' to 08°59' latitude and North of equator, and 035°26' East longitudes, and located at distance of 535 Km West of Addis Ababa. Altitude of the study area ranges from 500-1800 m. a. s. l., temperature ranges from 15°C (minimum) to 32°C (maximum) and has rainfall ranging from 1000ml to 1500ml [11].

Study Design
A cross-sectional study design using questionnaire and interview was used to assess the awareness of the public on zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis, anthrax, hydatidosis, taeniasis and rabies from January, 2017 to May, 2017.

Study Population
The study populations were residents of Lalo Kile District of Kellem Wollega Zone, including those people who use foods of animal origin and also have contact with animals. The population of the district were 32,688 male and 33,710 female, totally 66,398 [12].

Study Methodology
A semi-structured questionnaire was used for the interview of the respondents to evaluate the awareness of the community about the common zoonotic disease using questionnaire translated to the local language of the study area, Afaan Oromoo. The questionnaire contained knowledge about zoonotic diseases, the way of their transmission and clinical signs they show. Also the respondents were interviewed if they have deep knowledge on common zoonotic diseases including rabies, tuberculosis, anthrax, brucellosis, hydatidosis and Taeniasis, and additionally their status on the consumption of raw meat and raw milk.

Data Collection
A total of 440 respondents were interviewed in face to face. A questionnaire which was semi-structured was prepared in English and translated in the local language of the community, Afaan Oromoo, containing different community based questions that can assess the levels of their awareness towards common bacterial and viral zoonotic diseases. Simple random sampling technique was used as a method of data collection to select respondents required for the interview purpose.

Data Analysis
The collected data were entered into Microsoft excel spread sheet and were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Frequency and percentage were taken by computing descriptive statistics. A Pearson Chi-Square test was used to evaluate the presence of statistical significance of difference in the study. A P-value <0.05 was considered as significant.

The Overall Awareness of the Community on the Common Zoonotic Diseases
From all the respondents (

Public Awareness About Bovine Tuberculosis
According to the study (

Public Awareness About Anthrax
Accordingly (

Public Awareness About Hydatidosis
From the total respondents (

Public Awareness About Taeniasis
Among total respondents (

Public Awareness About Rabies
Of the total respondents (

Discussion
In the study area the awareness on zoonotic diseases were rabies (82.50%), taeniasis (81.82%) tuberculosis (81.36%), anthrax (79.55%) and hydatidosis (72.05%). This study showed that there was lower level of awareness on taeniasis and rabies as compared to the report of Tesfaye  According to this study, there was high level of public awareness on taeniasis and rabies in relation to the report done by Bsrat et al. (2017) [14] who reported 53.10% and 68.8%, respectively in and around Dodola Town, West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia, and also high level of public awareness on rabies in relation to the report done by Tensay et al. (2017) [15] who reported 71.9% in Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
The percentage of respondents who consume raw meat and raw milk was higher as compared to the report done by Bsrat et al. (2017) [14] who reported 68.50% consumption of raw meat and 52.3% consumption of raw milk in and Around Dodola Town, West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia, and by Tesfaye et al. (2013) [13] who reported 66.8% consumption of raw milk in Jimma, Southwestern Ethiopia.

Conclusion
Zoonotic diseases are common diseases that need attention from the public in Ethiopia, especially in the study area. These diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa in different ways including inhalation, ingestion or consumption of raw meat and milk, contact and other ways. They affects the health of the community and show different clinical signs, and sometimes death if not treated early. In this study, the awareness and knowledge of the community in the study area was assessed using questionnaire and interview. Accordingly, most of the respondents different status knew about the common zoonotic diseases. But some of some of them did not know about the common zoonotic diseases and some knowledge gap were observed. Therefore, continuous public awareness and teaching the community about zoonotic disease is very important.