Browsing by Author "Conteh, Abdulai Mahmood"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Indigenous pig farming in rural areas of Sierra Leone: Practices, constraints and impact on livelihood
(2019-08-30) Conteh, Abdulai Mahmood
Poverty and inequality between urban and rural areas remained major social issues in Sierra Leone. These are drivers forcing rural people to engage in feasible livelihood options such as animal husbandry. The current study, that lasted for seven (7) months attempt to investigate pig farming in rural areas of Moyamba district, Sierra Leone. The overarching objectives were to assess the management practices, challenges, and livelihood impact of indigenous pig production. Two hundred and thirty (230) checklists were administered and interview sessions held for farmers from ten (10) randomly selected villages in Moyamba District, Sierra Leone. A total of 1123 pigs were recorded for which 66.5% were owned by women and 33.5% by men. It was observed that basic sanitary practices such as cleaning of the pen, provision of feeds and clean drinking water for pigs, castration and livestock disease management were lacking in the study area. This constitutes a great public health concern considering the link between animal and human diseases in contemporary history. Respondent noted income generation, food and cultural/religious benefits as pull factors for their engagement in the sector. Conversely, results indicates that the lack of credit facility (100%), high piglet mortality (92.2%), lack of or inadequate housing (86.5%), poor and inadequate feeding (86.1%), poor market facility (72.2%), animal cruelty (70.9%), persistence disease outbreaks (64.8%), intermittent theft (64.3%), poor or lack of treatment service (33.5%), lack of improved breeds (16.1%) and ineffective livestock extension services (4.3%) are the factors that undercut the productivity of pig farming in rural areas. The study has shown that there is need to scale up of livestock extension programs for rural areas through timely vaccination campaigns, sustained active case finding and capacity building of farmers to adopt good livestock management practice that will in turn sustain rural livelihood systems.
Investigation of native chicken mortality/loss in the free-range system: Causes, control measures and impact to farmers at the household level, Moyamba District, Southern Sierra Leone
(2020-08-30) Conteh, Abdulai Mahmood
The increase in mortality/loss of native chickens in the rural areas of Sierra Leone is posing a serious threat to the traditional chicken industry. Poultry farmers loss many chickens annually which hugely undercut their livelihood and social status. This research was therefore conducted to investigate the main causes of native chicken mortality/loss, control strategies and how it influences the livelihood of farmers in Moyamba district, Sierra Leone. The data was obtained through field survey, personal discussion and observation from randomly selected 300 participants in 6 villages. The findings revealed that 84.3% of the interviewed farmers were female while the overall illiteracy rate of the participants was 72.3%. The average number of the different livestock kept by the farmers were: 7.8 (chicken), 0.3 (duck), 0.6 (sheep), 0.2 (pig) and 3.4 (goat). 45.5% of the mortality/loss recorded from 2017-2018 was said to be caused by predators while 54.5% was caused by diseases/parasites and other factors (2017-2018). 33.0 and 32.0% of the mortality/loss occurred during the late dry and early rainy seasons while 20.0 and 15.0% occurred in the early dry and late rainy seasons respectively. Settlements along the grassland and forested areas reported a high incidence of predators while the river-line areas reported high cases of diseases/parasites. The main predators identified were hawk, red fox and eagle while Newcastle disease and lice were the most serious disease and parasites named respectively. The animal healthcare services are inadequate and therefore, traditional methods of controlling diseases/parasites and predators are widely adopted. The impact of mortality/loss to farmers at household level include low protein intake, loss of income, weak cultural/religious practices, loss of flock, food insecurity, increase in poverty and lack of job. Therefore, there is a need for effective and continuous implementation of disease/parasites control programs in the study areas by strengthening the veterinary and the extension services for better productivity and improved management practices.
Prevalence of Newcastle Disease Virus Antibodies in Apparently Healthy Chickens in Sierra Leone
(Science Publishing Group, 2020) Conteh, Abdulai Mahmood
The study was conducted in the southern province of Sierra Leone for a period of seven months (March – September 2019). The main objective of the study was to investigate the seroprevalence level of Newcastle disease antibodies in apparently healthy free-range chickens in selected chiefdoms in the Moyamba District of Sierra Leone. A total of three hundred and thirty-three chickens were included in the study. Sera samples collected were analyzed using competitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The result of the investigation revealed an overall prevalence of 56.4% from which 21.6% and 34.8% were male and female chickens respectively. Kaiyamba chiefdom recorded the highest antibodies (73.9%), followed by Lower Banta (53.1%) and Bumpe (42.3%) chiefdoms. The difference in the prevalence of each category showed that adult female chickens were the most susceptible (67.5%) to Newcastle disease followed by the growers (55.8%) and adult male chickens (45.9%). Due to the lack of Newcastle disease vaccination history in the study areas, indigenous chickens had been exposed to the disease naturally in all the chiefdoms. Raising awareness about the disease through effective extension programs and improved animal healthcare services and husbandry practices is of great importance.