Vol. 10, Special Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Smita, Sanjay Shakya, Anil Patyal, Dhirendra Bhonsle, Vivek Naik, Roshan Sahu, Choodamani Chandrakar and SK Tiwari

Abstract:
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death worldwide and affecting more than 9 million people every year. Although Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most common cause of human TB, unknown proportions of TB cases are considered to be attributable to Mycobacterium bovis infection, which is also termed Bovine tuberculosis (bTB). In the present study, knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) based study regarding bTB was conducted from ten districts of Chhattisgarh involving 124 respondents. In rural settings, 100% farmers, 42.9% animal handlers and 100% para-veterinarians among male respondents were aware with the fact that TB of cattle is communicable to man, while 100% farmers and 20% animal handlers among female respondents were aware. In urban settings 91.5% farmers, 41.7% animal handlers, 90.9% para-veterinarians and 100% veterinarians among male respondents were acquainted that TB of cattle is communicable to man while 28.6% farmers and 100% para-veterinarians among female respondents were aware. Also it was found that respondents of Raipur, Bilaspur, Kanker, Bastar, Ambikapur, Balrampur and Surajpur were more aware with bTB and its transmission. The Bivariate c² analyses of the responses of people recorded during the study showed that there was significant difference between urban and rural people with respect to knowledge of source of information of bTB (p-value= 0.003), knowledge of bTB communicable to man (p-value= 0.008), and attitude of regular screening of dairy animals for bTB by dairy farmers (p- value =0.041). Socio-demographic parameters were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The findings of the study suggest that there is variable response to bTB among respondents of various occupational groups. Urban people are more aware as compared to rural people; para-veterinarians and veterinarians are more aware as compared to other groups related to knowledge, attitude and practices of bTB. Hence, community awareness program about bTB transmission through different communication media and health education program integrated with the animal health care system is necessary to raise community awareness in the area.