Exploring local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in northern and eastern Tanzania
Background
Zoonoses account for the most commonly reported emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is limited knowledge on how pastoral communities perceive zoonoses in relation to their livelihoods, culture and their wider ecology. This study was carried out to explore local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in Tanzania.
Methodology and principal findings
This study involved pastoralists in Ngorongoro district in northern Tanzania and Kibaha and Bagamoyo districts in eastern Tanzania. Qualitative methods of focus group discussions, participatory epidemiology and interviews were used. A total of 223 people were involved in the study. Among the pastoralists, there was no specific term in their local language that describes zoonosis. Pastoralists from northern Tanzania possessed a higher understanding on the existence of a number of zoonoses than their eastern districts' counterparts. Understanding of zoonoses could be categorized into two broad groups: a local syndromic framework, whereby specific symptoms of a particular illness in humans concurred with symptoms in animals, and the biomedical framework, where a case definition is supported by diagnostic tests. Some pastoralists understand the possibility of some infections that could cross over to humans from animals but harm from these are generally tolerated and are not considered as threats. A number of social and cultural practices aimed at maintaining specific cultural functions including social cohesion and rites of passage involve animal products, which present zoonotic risk.
Conclusions
These findings show how zoonoses are locally understood, and how epidemiology and biomedicine are shaping pastoralists perceptions to zoonoses. Evidence is needed to understand better the true burden and impact of zoonoses in these communities. More studies are needed that seek to clarify the common understanding of zoonoses that could be used to guide effective and locally relevant interventions. Such studies should consider in their approaches the pastoralists’ wider social, cultural and economic set up.
Author summary
Zoonoses are diseases transmissible between animals and humans. Risk factors include animal slaughter, the handling and preparing food of animal origin and particularly the consumption of such food when raw or undercooked. Pastoralists are daily in contact with their livestock and are likely to be more frequently exposed to zoonotic pathogens. However, very few studies have focused on the understanding of zoonoses and related risk factors among pastoralists of Tanzania. This was striking considering pastoralists’ close bond with and reliance on livestock for their nutritional needs and livelihoods. Our study was implemented in pastoral communities located in two different ecological zones of Tanzania. In all ten communities visited no local term for zoonoses existed, yet participants recognised there are some symptoms that appear in both animals and humans. However, these were not thought to be harmful to humans and people did not perceive the animal products from which they originate to be dangerous. Other zoonoses were known because community members received a diagnosis from a health facility. We also learnt that cultural practices relating to the preparation and consumption of food of animal origin were considered more important to the community than the risk of infection. The findings of this study highlight the gaps in knowledge of zoonoses among pastoralists in Tanzania and the importance of social and cultural practices. Therefore, we propose that interventions to control zoonoses should be informed by research of peoples’ behaviours related to handling of animals and consumption of animal source foods.