Prevalence of clinical fowl pox and associated risk factors in indigenous chicken in Kuluba sub county, Koboko district.

Abstract

Fowl pox is a disease of economic importance in chicken resulting into retarded growth in young chicken, decrease in egg production and mortalities. This negatively affects the rural communities who partly derive their livelihoods from raising indigenous chicken in Uganda. To date, little is known about the status of Fowl pox in local chicken across different parts of Koboko district. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of clinical Fowl pox and level of knowledge on the disease as well as risk factors associated with Fowl pox positivity in chicken in Kuluba Sub County in Koboko district. A cross sectional study was conducted among 40 indigenous chicken keeping households. Ten chickens were randomly picked from each household and physically examined for clinical Fowl pox. The findings from the physical examination were recorded in a check list. A structured questionnaire was used to capture data on farmer’s knowledge and awareness about Fowl pox. The data collected was entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using SPSS version 23 to generate descriptive statistics. Out of 400 chickens examined for Fowl pox, 58 had characteristic lesions of the disease, translating into an overall Fowl pox prevalence of 14.5%. The majority 38/40 (95%) of the respondents knew about Fowl pox, only 2/40 (5%) did not know the disease. All the respondents (100%) who participated did not vaccinate their chicken against fowl pox. Presence of mixed poultry species and mixing of different flocks were statistically significant factors that contributed to the above finding (p= 0.005 and 0.001 respectively). This finding reveals inadequacies in poultry management, therefore, there is need for farmers to adopt vaccination together with further epidemiological study for better control measures.