Seroepidemiological Investigation of Foot and Mouth Disease in Cattle Managed under Extensive Husbandry System in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

摘要

A cross-sectional multi-stage study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of Foot andMouth Disease (FMD) in cattle from October 2008 to June 2009 in selected zones of Tigray, northern Ethiopia.The overall seroprevalence of FMD in cattle was 15.4% (60/390) (95% Confidence interval (CI): 11.8 to 19).Among the assessed risk factors in this study, location (x2= 10.9, P=0.012), age (x2 = 9.3, P = 0.009) and breed(x2 = 15.1, P = 0.002) were significantly associated with prevalence of FMD when tested using a chi-square.However, during univariate analysis, location was the only significant risk factor in which cattle from southern(Odds ratio (OR) = 6; 95% CI: 1.7 to 21.5) and western (OR = 3.9; 95% CI: 1.1 to 13.1) zones were more at risk tobe infected with FMD than cattle from central and eastern zones of the region. The study revealed relativelyhigh seroprevalence of FMD in the study area which suggests government and other development partnersshould introduce regular vaccination program and animal movement should be restricted during the FMDoutbreak in the study area. Moreover, the study warrants further molecular characterization of the circulatingvirus serotypes to apply effective control and prevention measures.