Unlocking livestock development potential through science, influence and capacity
development ILRI APM, Addis Ababa, 15-17 May 2013
Participatory assessment of animal health constraints and husbandry
practices in the pig production system in three districts of Uganda
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence May 2013
Michel M. Dione, Emily A. Ouma, Kristina Rosel, Lawrence Mayega, Gideon Nadiope, David Kyriabwire and Danilo Pezo
Introduction
 Pork has become increasingly important in Uganda. Whereas pork accounted for only
1-2 % of the 11-12 kg/yr per capita meat consumption in the 1960s, it now accounts
for at least a third of the current 10 kg/yr.
 Pigs help both rural and urban households to improve livelihood security and also
serve as a source of cash in times of need.
 Animal health constraints have been identified as one of the major limiting
productivity factors.
Objectives
 To identify animal health and management constraints and opportunities for
intervention in the smallholder pig value chains in Uganda.
Methodology
 Focus group discussions were conducted on stratified random samples, based on sex,
of about 1400 pig farmers in 35 villages in Masaka, Kamuli and Mukono districts using
a semi-qualitative interview checklist
 Quantitative data, such as proportions and disease parameters were obtained
through group consensus.
 Findings were further triangulated with secondary data during the exercise.
Results
 Pig housing are dominated by tethering (66 %) and free range/scavenging systems (17
%) in rural settings; 66 % and 87 % of farmers confine the pigs in houses in peri-urban
and urban settings respectively.
 African swine fever is the first cause of pig mortality with epidemics commonly
occurring during dry season (Table 1, Figure 1). Worms and ecto-parasites namely
mites, lice, midges, ticks and jiggers are endemic (Figure 2), which along with poor
nutrition, lead to stunted growth which causes reduced market value of pigs
 Diarrhea and malnutrition are common in piglets and are associated with poor
hygiene and feeding respectively. Swine erysipelas, and Foot and Mouth-Disease are
sporadic, and could occur once or twice a year (Figure 1).
 Indigenous treatments are sometime used in replacement of commercial drugs.
These treatments include human urine and decoctions of local herbs for African swine
fever and the use of disposed engine oil or tobacco extracts for ecto-parasites.
 93% of farmers declare practicing deworming of their pigs; 37% practice ecto-parasite
spraying and 77% castrate their pigs.
 The main constraints affecting animal health as identified by farmers are poor housing
and feeding, weak veterinary services, faked drugs and lack of knowledge on piggery
management.
 Some of the actions already attempted by farmers to overcome those constraints are
the organization of groups for capacity building and utilizing professional health
workers. However, they believe that the government as well as R&D institutions,
should assist them in improving facilities and management by providing training on
better pig husbandry practices and health, and helping to get access to funding to
enable them to improve farm infrastructure, i.e., corrals, drainage.
Disease Morbidity
(%)
Mortality
(%)
Case fatality
(%)
ASF 29 67 >100
Worms infection 37 14 39
Mange mite 16 7 43
Diarrhea 6 5 86
Lice infestation 5 1 24
Malnutrition 4 3 66
FMD 1 0.0 6
Midge infestation 1 0.2 18
*Others 1 0.5 73
Acknowledgments
To IFAD –EU for providing the funds for the SPVCD project,
DVOs of Masaka, Mukono and Kamuli, and the VEDCO staff in
Kamuli, the FGD facilitators, and farmers who participated in
the FGDs openly providing most of the information reported in
this study.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Rainfall
ASF
Worms
Diarrhea
Malnutrition
FMD
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Rainfall
Mite
Lice
Jigger
Midge
Ticks
Conclusion
Animal health is a limiting factor in the pig production system in
Uganda; therefore, there is a need for building capacity of
technology service providers and farmers to tackle these
problems. These primary findings will support the identification
of best-bet interventions toward improving animal health in the
smallholder pig value chains in Uganda.
*Swine erysipelas, anemia, ticks, jiggers, heat stress, undiagnosed diseases usually related to sudden death
Table 1: List of priority diseases in the pig sector in Uganda
* FMD was reported in only one village (kirumba-Katwe) in Masaka district
Figure 1: Seasonal variation in disease occurrence
*jiggers were only reported in Kamuli district
Figure 2: Seasonal variation in occurrence of ecto-parasites