A Study on the Community Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Bovine Tuberculosis in Ejere Town, Ethiopia

Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) continues to be a major public health problem throughout the world, including Ethiopia. The situation is worse in developing countries like Ethiopia, where lower knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of the people is poor about the disease. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward bovine tuberculosis in Ejere town of Ethiopia. The study was conducted from December 2022 to May 2022 in Ejere town of Central Ethiopia. A total of 391 study participants were included using simple random sampling technique. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using stata software version 16.4. Three hundred fifty six five (91%) of the respondents said that they heard about bovine tuberculosis and only 35% knew that TB is caused by germ (bacteria). There was statically significance association between those respondents who heard about bovine tuberculosis with their education (X 2 = 20.96, P=0.001). The attitude of communities towards TB disease in the current study area showed good action toward consumption of bovine tuberculosis infected animal (51.4) %. Dry cough (68.8%) was the most commonly stated symptoms of bovine tuberculosis and modern drugs used for the treatment of bovine tuberculosis (73.6%) was the preferred choice of therapy. It was identified that there was a gap in the knowledge and attitude on the cause and transmission of bovine tuberculosis among the study participants. Emphasis needs to be given on increasing the awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice in Ejere town about bovine tuberculosis that is communicable to humans.