Why smallholder pig value chain actors are not
willing to report disease outbreak or comply to
animal movement restrictions in Uganda
M. M. Dione, C. W. Amia, E. Ouma, B. Wieland
15th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics
Chiang Mai, Thailand, 12-16 November 2018

The pig sector in Uganda
• Dynamic and rapidly growing sector
• Pig population increased from 0.19 to 3.2 million pigs over the
past three decades
• Growth rate around 8%/year for 10 years
• Highest per capita consumption of pork in East Africa (3.4
kg/person/year)
• More than 1.1 million households raise pigs in rural and peri-
urban settings
• Pigs contribute to livelihoods and income to meet emergency
needs and school fees

Structure of the pig sector in Uganda
A large informal sector
• Mostly backyard systems, managed by
women and children
• Low productivity (breeds, feeds & health
constraints)
• Uncoordinated trade & transport
• Predominantly unsupervised slaughter slabs,
with no meat inspection in local markets,
road-side butchers, pork joints
• Only one approved slaughterhouse in
Kampala
• Few medium and large scale piggeries
• Few formal processors

Interconnected value chain actors
Processors
Consumers
Pig & pork traders
Pig producers
Transporters
Input suppliers

Occurrence of African swine fever in Uganda
• High socio-economic cost to smallholder farmers
• Poor biosecurity at farm level and along the pig value chains
• Poor management and handling practices of live animals and their
products
• Underreporting and limited animal movement control during
outbreaks
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Number of outbreak cases Number of death

Major constraints to management of ASF
• Poor farm biosecurity and along the pig value chain
• Lack of disease reporting by farmers
• Lack of compliance of pig farmers to animal movement
restriction during outbreaks
• Poor policy enforcement on animal movement control
• Limited capacity of veterinary services to intervene
during disease outbreaks
But why do farmers, traders/butchers and vets not
comply with disease reporting and animal movement
restrictions?

Material and Methods
Survey on biosecurity and response
to outbreaks among value chain
actors in Masaka and Lira (major pig
producing districts of Uganda)
Pig farmers (n= 836)
Pig traders/butchers (n=81)
Vets/paravets (n=71)
Open questions on non-reporting
and non-compliance with movement
control, categorization according to
themes

Themes
Knowledge
Economic reasons
Attitude
Animal health system, policies
Actions of others, social reasons

Experience of farmers with outbreaks in previous 12
months
Masaka Lira
ASF Outbreak % %
Has farm ever experienced ASF
Yes 39 42
Has neighbor's farm ever experienced ASF
Yes 58 68

Farmers
not reporting disease outbreak
0 5 10 15 20
Other reasons
Fear of quarantine/movt control
High financial cost of communication
Disease has no cure
Limited access to vet. authorities
Lack of money
Don't know where to report
High treatment cost
No action taken by authorities
Lack of time to report
Fear of losing animals following culling
Carelessness
Fear of losing customers/buyers
Fear of stigmatization
Lack of knowledge about onset of outbreak
% of respondents listing reasons

Farmers
not complying with animal movement control
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Other reasons
Corrupted authorities
Ignorance of law/regulations
Lack of proper movement control
No action taken by authorities
Expensive movement permit
Lack of feeds, housing
Others don't comply
Lack of money
Carelessness
Fear of stigmatization
Protect source of income
Not aware of onset of outbreak
Fear of losing business
% of respondents listing reasons

Traders
not reporting disease outbreak
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Fear business closure
Fear of blame
No action taken by authorities after…
Don't know where to report
Fear of stigmatization
Laziness/Too busy
Carelessness
Not responsibility to report
Lack of knowledge about outbreak
Fear of losing market
% of respondents listing reason

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Lazinness
Lack of proper movement control
Malicious intent to spread disease
Expensive movement permit
Protect the only source of income
Others don't comply
Lack of knowledge/ignorance
Fear to interrupt business
% of respondents listing reason
Traders
not complying with animal movement control

Vets
not reporting disease outbreak
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Other reasons
Lack of allowance
Difficult to work with area vet
Make money during outbreak
Poor working relations with farmers
Busy
Farmers don't report
Fear to lose business/customers
Poor transport mean
No action taken by authorities
Reporting is expensive
Carelessness
Lack of knowledge about the disease
% of respondents listing reason

Vets
not complying to animal movement control
0 5 10 15 20 25
Busy
Pork supply is affected
Corrupted authorities
Fear of conflict with politicians
Lack of staff capacity/authority
Carelessness
Vets/paravets don't comply
Protect source of income/earn money
Lack of compliance of farmers
Lack of knowledge of diseases outbreak
Costs of enforcing movement control
Fear of losing market/clients
% of respondents listing reason

Others observations
Overall similar answers by men and women, some differences
- Women more often report lack oft time and ‘no action taken
bey authorities’
- Men more often reported lack of knowledge and fear of
stigmatization
Differences between Lira and Masak regarding movement
control:
- In Lira social reasons (stigmatization) more often listed
- In Masaka ‘other don’t compl’ more often listed

Interconnected value chain actors
Processors
Consumers
Pig & pork traders
Pig producers
Transporters
Input suppliers

Discussion
Protection of business/source of income and the lack of
knowledge about ASF and its control measures are the
key drivers of non or poor reporting for all value chain
actors
No compensation scheme in place for outbreaks
Short term more important than long term

The way forward
• Identify incentives for farmers, traders and vets to report (p.e.
financial compensation policies)
• Adjust reporting and outbreak respond systems and capacity
building of private vets and veterinary services to effectively
respond to outbreaks
• Develop alternative ways of disease reporting  involvement
of community with self-regulation systems
• Use ICT for channeling information on disease  ongoing trial
in Masaka with interactive voice response (IVR) service: allows
pig farmers to listen to advisory information and report
disease outbreak on their mobile phones

This work is financed by
Irish Aid and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock
Implemented in partnership with
Masaka and Lira districts, Government of Uganda
Acknowledgements

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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