| dc.description.abstract | Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is highly contagious and infectious viral disease of domestic small ruminants and has affected livelihoods in Asal and Semi-Asal Lands of Kenya since the disease was first reported in the country. It is the single most destructive disease of small ruminants and losses are weighed in terms of both assets and production. Other losses associated with the disease are the control costs at both national and household levels. The disease was first recorded in Kenya with an outbreak that occurred in Turkana District in early 2006 and was officially recognized in October 2007 through official notification of the outbreak by the Government of Kenya to World Organization for Animal Health.
From 2006 the disease continued to spread to other Asal and Semi-Asal districts of Kenya with Kajiado district being one of them. Recent outbreaks have been reported in Kajiado North and Kajiado Central Districts. The disease causes high mortality in goats and sheep with direct economic losses usually rendering pastoralists' households destitute since these households predominantly keep sheep and goats. The PPR outbreaks have had devastating effects on households across most of the pastoral areas of Kenya.
The study was designed to assess the impact of the control of PPR on the health of sheep and goats in Kajiado North District through establishment of how the community level of awareness on PPR has affected the health of sheep and goats, determination of whether PPR control measures by the Department of Veterinary Services has had effect on the health of sheep and goats and establishing how morbidity and mortality of PPR have affected the health of sheep and goats.
The study was carried out in Isinya, Magadi and Ewaso Kedong divisions of the District. A sample size of 141 respondents distributed within the three divisions was used during the study. The correlational survey research design was used and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The quantitative data was collected through structured questionnaires while the qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interview schedules. The qualitative data collection method used the Participatory Rural Appraisal tools such as Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews.
The qualitative data was analyzed through categorization by identifying patterns to bring the meaning to the text while quantitative data was subjected to data entry screen, data coding, data entry, data cleaning and finally data analysis through the use of descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency measures of variability and percentages. The condensed and manageable data was further analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists. | en_US |
