AWARENESS LEVELS OF LISTERIOSIS AMONG DAIRY FARMERS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Intro: Listeriosis, caused by listeria monocytogenes is a zoonosis with significant public health importance but has been understudied. The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of listeriosis (circling disease) among Dairy Cattle Farmers in Perak and Selangor Malaysia. Methods: The study protocol was approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, (IACUC) Universiti Putra Malaysia (R036/2020). The survey was conducted between December 2019 to March 2020. A total of 50 respondents who met the inclusion criteria were randomly selected and recruited for the survey. The questionnaire was designed in both English and Malay languages and was validated by experts in public health. The internal consistency of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach alpha, the result was found to be 0.73. The normality of the data was assessed using skewness, and kurtosis values and descriptive statistics were expressed as frequencies (percentages). SPSS version 28 was used to analyze the data Findings: The findings of the study revealed among others that the respondents’ knowledge, attitude, and practice on listeriosis are low with regards to eating and drinking contaminated food and water from humans and livestock (13%), wearing personal protective clothing (16%) and feeding animals with quality silage in a clean environment (10%) respectively. Discussion: . The overall level of knowledge about the disease was poor due to the education level. Further analysis revealed a low but improved attitude with agreeing to wear protective wear also very low about Practice as there were no standard methods of disposal of waste. Conclusion: Conclusively, overall there is low knowledge, practice, and attitude towards Listeriosis amongst the respondents. Thus, considering the high mortality rate of listeriosis (20% - 30%) in humans it is very pertinent to intensify public health campaigns and programs to safeguard the environment and improve the well-being of animals and humans towards achieving one health goal.