Cattle owners' awareness of bovine tuberculosis in high and low prevalence settings of the wildlife-livestock interface areas in Zambia

Reported levels of cattle and wildlife contact by respondents was at 40%, 58.2% and 1.8%, were relatively proportional to herd level prevalence of cattle BTB at 64.8%, 58.1% and 5.9% in Blue lagoon, Lochinvar and Kazungula respectively. Although 42/106 (39.6%) of cattle owners had heard of BTB, only 3 (7%) had an idea on how the disease was spread. Cattle contact with wildlife was associated with high levels of awareness by cattle owners (χ2 = 43.5, df = 2, P < 0.001). Awareness of BTB in low prevalence settings was lower compared to high prevalence settings.Our study has revealed low levels of awareness among cattle owners on BTB. These results could be useful for policy makers when planning mitigation measures to consider awareness levels by cattle owners for effective implementation. Such information is useful for determining sensitisation programs for cattle owners before mitigation. These results further provide useful insights that disease control is a multi-factorial process with cattle owners as an integral part that can support policy implementation.In Zambia, bovine tuberculosis (BTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC), has previously been reported in the wildlife-livestock interface areas of the Kafue basin [1-3]. The Kafue basin has a long history as an area with a high prevalence of BTB in Zambian cattle with the wildlife-livestock interface being suggested as the high risk area and the Kafue lechwe antelopes (Kobus leche Kafuensis), being the wildlife reservoir hosts [1-5]. The basin is one of the few lucurstrine wetlands supporting close to 300,000 cattle [6] at a carrying density of 50 animals per square kilometre on a 6,000 square kilometre flood plain with a variety of wildlife species whilst the Kafue lechwe antelope form the mega fauna with an estimated population of 44,000 [7].In wildlife-livestock interface areas, one important control measure to prevent the spread of diseases from known wil