Occurrence of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia in Agago and Otuke districts, Uganda.

Abstract

Contagious Caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is a devastating disease of goats caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. Capripneumoniae (Mccp). The disease was first confirmed in Uganda in 1995 in Karamoja region. CCPP disease negatively impacts on goat health and production but its extent and magnitude among the local communities remains unknown. A cross sectional study was conducted in the districts of Agago and Otuke neighbouring Karamoja region in Northern Uganda during the months of July and August 2011 to explore the status of CCPP. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 162 selected farmers in the study areas to assess their knowledge, attitudes and perceptions on the factors they associated with CCPP occurrence and 8 focus group discussions were also conducted to obtain qualitative information on CCPP. Four hundred and four goats from randomly selected unvaccinated herds and 100 goats from vaccinated herds were examined for antibodies against Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. Capripneumoniae (Mccp) using ELISA.

The majority of the farmers 121 (74.7%) had knowledge of CCPP and recognised that CCPP was among the diseases affecting goat production in the two districts. There was no association in the occurrence of CCPP among different herd sizes (p=0.66), farming practices (p=0.93), source of breeding stock (p=0.28) and method of acquisition of breeding stock (p=0.98). Levels of antibodies against Mccp were higher among the vaccinated goats than unvaccinated ones (mean ODs of 0.905 and 0.776, p=0.08). Among the unvaccinated herds seroprevalence of CCPP was 32 (17.7%) and 52 (23.3%) for Agago and Otuke respectively.

This study demonstrated that CCPP was prevalent in Agago and Otuke districts which are outside but close to Karamoja region. Farmers in these districts were generally aware of the disease. Further studies should be undertaken to investigate CCPP in other districts in Uganda to pave way for effective preventive and control measures against CCPP in the country.