Veterinary Medicine

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Browsing Veterinary Medicine by Author "Chipinga, Jones"

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    Detection of hatavirus in mice and the assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices on hantavirus disease in mice consuming societies in eastern province, Zambia.
    (The University of Zambia, 2022) Chipinga, Jones
    Hantavirus is a zoonosis which can be rodent borne and recently the global scene has seen the expansion of its geographical distribution. Hantavirus disease is notifiable in America, Europe and Asia but it is underreported in Africa despite recent studies revealing the seroprevalence of Hantavirus both in humans and animals in Mozambique and Zambia respectively. Thus far, significant knowledge gaps remain and relatively little information is available for most rodent- borne Hantaviruses in Zambia. Therefore, we conducted a cross-section study to determine the presence of Hantaviruses in mice (n = 160) in Katete district Eastern of Province-Zambia. Using pan Hanta primers, Hantavirus was detected via RT PCR at a prevalence of 2.5% (4/160) (95% CI: 1.16-7.52) in Mastomys natalensis rodents collected from Katete district Eastern Province-Zambia. In parallel to laboratory analysis of samples, a cross-section survey using a semi-structured questionnaire (n = 160) was also carried out to capture information on knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding Hantavirus in mice consuming communities of Katete district Eastern Province. The average KAP score was calculated from total scores for knowledge, attitude, and practices and then assessed. The association between the level of knowledge and factors of knowledge, factors of attitude, and factors of practices was determined using Pearson chi-square. Multivariate analysis was used to determine the predictors of knowledge. Participants had an overall moderate knowledge (score = 59.57%), fair attitude (score = 51.40%), and good practices (score = 73.00%) towards Hantavirus. Only 48.72% (38/78) of participants had sufficient knowledge of Hantavirus. The study found that level of education (Secondary (OR: 0.69 (95% CI: 0.47–0.97)) (p = 0.047), not trapping mice (OR: 0.34 (95% CI: 0.16–0.82)) (p = 0.025), and consuming mice (OR: 6.05 (95% CI: 1.26–24.22)) (p = 0.034) were predictors of moderate knowledge on disease transmission from rodents. The current study reported that participants had moderate knowledge and fair attitude on top of displaying good practices towards reducing the transmission of diseases. Therefore, this study recommends community sensitization on Hantavirus and advocates for the importance of reporting suspected cases to relevant authorities for proper management