The effectiveness of disease control measures implemented by a community is largely determined by their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding the disease and, in this case, the vector. Understanding how AAT affects cattle owners and how they handle the disease is vital to developing effective, locally-adapted control programmes (22). Community participation in tsetse control activities ensures sustainability of the programmes especially if the community members and extension officers are involved in design of the programmes (23).
Overall, we found only 16% of the livestock-keeping communities living near Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve had adequate knowledge on tsetse flies and animal African trypanosomosis. Similar studies in Ethiopia and Tanzania around Baro-Akobo and Gojeb river basins, and Serengeti National Reserve, respectively, found out that the communities around the reserve had limited knowledge of tsetse flies and trypanosomosis (24)(21). This is in contrast to other studies where 23.1% of the farmers could associate the causal association between tsetse flies and trypanosomosis among communities surrounding Shimba Hills National Reserve (25). In other studies in Tanzania, 90% of the respondents interviewed in communities surrounding Serengeti national park (27)(21) had adequate knowledge of trypanosomosis. However, earlier studies showed that people living around Serengeti National Park in Tanzania were knowledgeable about tsetse flies and human African trypanosomosis (27) and the tsetse flies (26) while those in Mateu district in Tanzania were more knowledgeable in AAT than HAT (28). The reason for the higher level of knowledge for in Serengeti may be attributed to the high number of respondents (45%) who had attained secondary education compared to 19% in this study for those with secondary and post-secondary education while the participants without formal education together with their counterparts with primary level education comprising of 81% of the respondents. People who are familiar with the clinical signs of the disease are more likely to seek assistance from the veterinary officers because they can identify the sick animals early before their body conditions deteriorate. Furthermore, unlike other studies in which male predominance is high, particularly in the active age groups (21)(29), this study was predominated by women (53%) and people above 55 years (44%).
The huge difference in knowledge gap noted in this study could be attributed to the fact that studies by (21) occurred just after recent outbreaks which were followed by awareness campaigns. The other reason for the difference in knowledge gap could be the population sampled. Another study in western part of Serengeti reported 95% of the respondents were knowledgeable on tsetse flies and trypanosomosis (26). The study participants in Serengeti were predominantly male unlike the present study which was dominated by women, who dominate livestock keeping among the Giriama community. The higher number of older people sampled in this study may be due to their preference to live in the villages, unlike the younger educated generation with preference to live and work in cities. (26)
Furthermore, the limited knowledge by the participants in this study, on the vector and the disease transmitted, influenced their attitude towards prevention and control measures. The vast majority of the respondents (98%) assumed that they knew tsetse flies, but most of them were unable to describe tsetse fly or could not distinguish it from other biting flies. The respondents’ inability to describe a tsetse fly raises questions about their certainty that tsetse fly bites cause disease. They did, however, realized that contact with tsetse flies occurs primarily in the forest while the animals are grazing. Secondary and tertiary education were associated with higher knowledge of AAT compared to primary education and no formal education. This could be attributed to the knowledge acquired in post primary education. In one section of Dida location, where the wild animals watering point is at the edge of the forest near the village, the respondents noted that contact with tsetse flies occurred when the animals, especially elephants go to the watering point to drink water. Indeed, knowledge of tsetse flies and measures of trypanosomosis control have been shown as important factors influencing the community’s willingness to contribute resources and participate in control activities (23). Indeed, communities with a low level of education are principally vulnerable, and could be difficult to integrate them into control programmes (30).
Regarding the description of the disease transmitted by tsetse flies, most of the respondents could not describe the clinical signs of an animal suffering from trypanosomosis. Among the Giriama community, any form of sickness is locally referred to as “homa” which means fever. Many in this community believe that tsetse fly bites cause “homa” in both humans and livestock. They also noted that hybrid animals such as Friesian and Ayrshire are the most affected, while a cross breed with the Zebu and Borana cattle (local breeds) are more tolerant to bites by tsetse flies. Indeed the Maasai Zebu and the Orma Boran breeds have been shown to be more resistant to trypanosomosis over other local breeds such as the Galana Boran and the exotic breeds (31). Other African local cattle breeds such as the Baoulé, Zebu, Ndama and Ndama/Baoulé crosses have various degrees of resistance to African trypanosomosis (32).
Compared with the unemployed and the uneducated, educated and employed farmers were found to be implementing the recommended methods of tsetse control. The attitude of the participants without formal education further influenced their use of control methods for tsetse and trypanosomosis. Most uneducated people did not know the recommended methods for controlling tsetse and trypanosomosis and therefore could not use them. This is in agreement with other studies where knowledge of disease influenced preventive practices (33). Other studies, on the other hand, have shown that disease knowledge does not always correlate to practice, with vector management strategies being lower than disease knowledge (30). Some of the participants in this study were aware on the control measures but did not believe it was worthwhile to use them. Others were aware of the control measures but could not afford to implement them. We also noticed that some of the farmers were dipping or spraying their livestock, but they were unaware that acaricides could prevent tsetse flies from biting livestock. While this study did not investigate the types of acaricides used by farmers living around Arabuko Sokoke Forest reserve, other studies in Uganda have shown that farmers may use acaricides that are resistant to tsetse flies but only effective against ticks (34). Although the County Government of Kilifi has dips, most of them were non-functional due to challenges such as water shortages and overdependence on the government to run the dips. Subsequently, tsetse control groups were formed in all sub-Counties and were supplied with pumps and pyrethroid-based acaricides that are effective against ticks and tsetse to supplement the dipping service.
In comparison to the reference group of 15–24 year olds, the majority of people, particularly those over 55 years old, did not know whether the recommended tsetse control measures were effective or worth using at all. As the head of homesteads, they also felt that the control measures were costly. This could be attributed to the fact that this group supports families and thus contributes money for tsetse control compared to the youth between 15 to 24 years. Furthermore, household heads preferred keeping goats over cattle because the cost of keeping cattle is high due to the requirement of regular dipping whereas goats are more resistant to trypanosomosis. The fact that goats are more resistant to trypanosomosis may explain the low prevalence of trypanosomosis among caprines (35) (36).
