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Simple Summary: Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a preventable disease in cattle. Understanding the epidemiology of the disease, as well as farmers' perceptions, is the most important key to designing a prevention strategy. Accordingly, the current study was designed to establish LSD seroprevalence using specific methods and to investigate LSD epidemiology in the Sidama regional state (Ethiopia), as well as to assess farmers' perceptions. The study determined high exposures to LSD at both herd and animal levels in three agro-ecological zones. Furthermore, the farmers' knowledge about LSD was low, and there were complaints of LSD disease reports even in vaccinated groups. As a conclusion, this study identified the distribution of LSD in different management systems as well as agro-ecological zones, followed by a low level of farmers' knowledge about the disease. Furthermore, this study indicates the necessity for community-based awareness campaigns regarding clinical signs of LSD along with regularly updated information on LSD prevalence. The lumpy skin disease (LSD) vaccination status and epidemiological distribution remain unknown in some parts of Ethiopia, including the Sidama regional state. In this study, a serological survey of LSD was performed using a specific virus neutralization assay in selected districts of the Sidama regional state representing three agroecological zones from September 2021 to June 2022. Moreover, an assessment of community awareness and LSD vaccine-related problems was conducted using a questionnaire. Our results showed an overall animal and herd level seroprevalence of 40.8% (95%CI = 35.8, 45.8) and 81% (95%CI = 77, 85), respectively. High and low seroprevalence were observed in lowland (48%) and highland (28%) areas, although they were not statistically significant. However, risk factors such as management systems and breeds showed substantial differences in their LSD prevalence. The results obtained through the questionnaire showed that a small portion of respondents (29.2%) know about LSD and vaccinate their cattle (23.3%) against this disease. Only 20.8% of the respondents stated that there was LSD occurrence in their vaccinated cattle. In conclusion, both qualitative and quantitative study results showed the need for intervention in terms of community-based awareness creation about LSD clinical signs and vaccination advantages together with the frequently updated information on LSD prevalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an important disease for dairy productivity, as well as having the potential for zoonotic transmission. Previous prevalence studies of bTB in the dairy sector in central Ethiopia have suggested high prevalence, however, they have been limited to relatively small scale surveys, raising concerns about their representativeness. Here we carried out a cross sectional one-stage cluster sampling survey taking the dairy herd as a cluster to estimate the prevalence of bTB in dairy farms in six areas of central Ethiopia. The survey, which to date is by far the largest in the area in terms of the number of dairy farms, study areas and risk factors explored, took place from March 2016 to May 2017. This study combined tuberculin skin testing and the collection of additional herd and animal level data by questionnaire to identify potential risk factors contributing to bTB transmission. We applied the single intradermal cervical comparative tuberculin (SICCT) test using >4mm cut-off for considering an individual animal as positive for bTB; at least one reactor animal was required for a herd to be considered bTB positive. Two hundred ninety-nine dairy herds in the six study areas were randomly selected, from which 5,675 cattle were tested. The overall prevalence of bTB after standardisation for herd-size in the population was 54.4% (95% CI 48.7–60%) at the herd level, and it was 24.5% (95% CI 23.3–25.8) at the individual animal level. A Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) with herd and area as random effect was used to explore risk factors association with bTB status. We found that herd size, age, bTB history at farm, and breed were significant risk factors for animals to be SICCT positive. Animals from large herds had 8.3 times the odds of being tuberculin reactor (OR: 8.3, p-value:0.008) as compared to animals from small herds. The effect of age was strongest for animals 8–10 years of age (the oldest category) having 8.9 times the odds of being tuberculin reactors (OR: 8.9, p-value:<0.001) compared to the youngest category. The other identified significant risk factors were bTB history at farm (OR: 5.2, p-value:0.003) and cattle breed (OR: 2.5, p-value: 0.032). Our study demonstrates a high prevalence of bTB in central Ethiopia but with a large variation in within-herd prevalence between herds, findings that lays an important foundation for the future development of control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lumpy skin disease (LSD) vaccination status and epidemiological distribution remain unknown in some parts of Ethiopia, including the Sidama regional state. In this study, a serological survey of LSD was performed using a specific virus neutralization assay in selected districts of the Sidama regional state representing three agroecological zones from September 2021 to June 2022. Moreover, an assessment of community awareness and LSD vaccine-related problems was conducted using a questionnaire. Our results showed an overall animal and herd level seroprevalence of 40.8% (95%CI = 35.8, 45.8) and 81% (95%CI = 77, 85), respectively. High and low seroprevalence were observed in lowland (48%) and highland (28%) areas, although they were not statistically significant. However, risk factors such as management systems and breeds showed substantial differences in their LSD prevalence. The results obtained through the questionnaire showed that a small portion of respondents (29.2%) know about LSD and vaccinate their cattle (23.3%) against this disease. Only 20.8% of the respondents stated that there was LSD occurrence in their vaccinated cattle. In conclusion, both qualitative and quantitative study results showed the need for intervention in terms of community-based awareness creation about LSD clinical signs and vaccination advantages together with the frequently updated information on LSD prevalence.