Management of diseases in a ruminant livestock production system: a participatory appraisal of the performance of veterinary services delivery, and utilization in Ghana

Table 2 Most important adversities affecting livestock production based on reported severity of impact on herd by study district

Farmer Survey (N = 350)	KAPS (n = 149)	MION (n = 98)	PRU EAST (n = 103)
Adverse Events	Ranking
Animal diseases	1st	1st	1st
Pasture shortages	3rd	2nd	3rd
Conflict with other land users	2nd	-	= 5th
Theft of animals	4th	-	2nd
Bush fires	-	3rd	= 5th
Water shortages	-	5th
Swallowing of foreign bodies	5th	4th	4th
Veterinary Officer Survey (N = 13)	KAPS (n = 3)	MION (n = 5)	PRU EAST (n = 5)
Adverse Events	Ranking
Animal diseases	1st	= 1st	= 4th
Pasture shortages	= 4th	= 1st	= 4th
Conflict with other land users	= 2nd	= 2nd	= 2nd
Theft of animals	= 4th	= 2nd	1st
Bush fires	= 4th	-	-
Water shortages	-	-	-
Swallowing of foreign bodies	= 2nd	= 3rd	= 2nd

Numbers (n) of participants, including farmers and veterinary personnel included in surveys, falling into each study district; KAPS denotes participants from the Kwahu Afram Plains South District, MION denotes participants from the Mion District and PRU EAST denotes participants from the Pru East District in the Southern, Northern and Middle farming Belts of Ghana respectively. The adverse events included in the table are events for which ranked first to fifth per study district. Rankings range from 1st = Most severe impact on herds to 5th = Least severe impact on herds. Rankings are derived as the sum of the products of the number of participants (n) and the reported severity level (no effect = 1, moderate effect = 2, and severe effect = 3) for each adverse event, standardized by sample size per study district. Rankings with “ = ” before the rank denote tie rank scores for adverse events within each study district. We omitted rankings below the 5^th rank within each study district. The other adverse events include poor market for livestock, flooding and ectoparasite infestations

ISSN: 1746-6148