Biosecurity Measures Needed by Rural Farmers for Effective Farm Animal Production in Ebonyi State

Abstract

This study focused on the identification of bio-security measures needed by rural farmers for increased animal production in Ebonyi State. Three research questions were developed to guide the study. The study adopted a survey research design and used a multi-stage random sampling technique to select 156 rural farmers and 30 extension agents. A structural questionnaire was developed by the researcher on four points rating scale for data collection from the respondents. The data were analysed using mean and standard deviation at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that farmers could use segregative actions like quarantine, exclusion, and full restriction; sanitary actions such as waste management, cleaning and disinfecting of equipment and premises, and eradicative actions like vaccination and culling in biosecurity of farm animals. It is recommended that government should assist rural farmers to get needed inputs in order to organize intensive animal production for better biosecurity, and veterinary doctors should be mobilized to monitor rural farmers and help them adopt biosecurity actions identified by this study.