*One Health Approach to Control Brucellosis in Sierra Leone DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82378*

*Bacterial Cattle Diseases*

**District**

Region

**Table 1.**

*Source: [22]. \*\*Western Area Rural & Urban.*

**Estimated number of livestock by type, district and region Administrative units Type**

**38**

**Table 1** explains the increase and spread of cattle production from the north and east in 1966 [21] to every district in the country [22]. This spread of cattle production corresponds to an increase in the spread of brucellosis. The majority of cattle owners or herders are Fulani nomads with little or no formal education. Pastoral Fulani who

Eastern 106,918 172,646 90,698 24,221 365,053 29,686 Northern 366,539 346,495 201,951 63,001 809,513 14,392 Southern 72,911 209,942 68,436 29,062 467,082 38,530 Western Area 514 83,822 66,581 101,214 314,981 17,168 Total **546,881 812,906 427,667 217,497 1,956,630 99,775**

**Cattle Goat Sheep Pigs Chickens Ducks**

Kailahun 430 54,478 17,159 6924 98,894 150 Kenema 5332 73,507 50,980 11,842 200,560 25,861 Kono 101,156 44,661 22,559 5455 65,599 3675 Bombali 158,705 61,723 51,831 8553 125,451 2623 Kambia 62,223 47,053 26,503 6278 171,903 3305 Koinadugu 97,858 63,327 39,136 38,214 137,045 630 Port Loko 11,614 97,596 52,737 4909 259,212 5436 Tonkolili 36,138 76,796 31,744 5047 115,903 2398 Bo 50,930 97,920 22,640 9086 173,037 10,493 Bonthe 6840 26,987 9161 9051 60,715 12,078 Moyamba 11,629 48,101 8499 5660 146,996 7606 Pujehun 3510 36,934 28,136 5265 86,335 8352 WAR&U\*\* 514 83,822 66,581 101,213 314,981 17,167 Total **546,881 812,906 427,667 217,497 1,956,630 99,775**

own approximately 90% of the national herd [23] own cattle production.

*Projections for national livestock populations by species, by district and by region.*

The majority of the cattle owners practice a free-range animal production system, which encourages animals to move into large areas of land in search of food. Pastoralists utilize an extensive range of land as common pool resources through movement from one location to another making full use of their character and cultural practices [24]. In Nigeria, land use management is characterized by the transhumant system due to vegetation variations, agricultural practices and tsetse fly infestation [25]. Fulani pastoralists migrated to Hausa land from Senegalese valley in western Sudan but were forced to move due to deteriorating environmental conditions, land degradation and recurrent draught, thus accounting for the exodus to Guinea savannah to the forest fringes in the southern parts of Nigeria [26]. Illiteracy is a significant factor among cattle herds or agropastoralists exacerbating brucellosis or other cattle diseases in West Africa and Sierra Leone in particular. Cattle rearers or agropastoralists use knowledge passed onto them by

their accentors. Studies conducted in northern Nigeria reported a common feature of rural farming, as about 42% of cattle rearers or agropastoralists are illiterate or had no formal education [27]. The majority of pastoralists (58%) had no western formal education compared to 66.2% who had acquired Islamic education [28]. As a result, they have no balanced diet prepared for their animals, nor supplementation of the ration. Kassam [29] opined that the livestock sector lacks adequate supplies of quality feed and pasture.

Animals became malnourished, emaciated and exposed to diseases. Compounding the situation further is the lack of adequate veterinary service to attend to the needed problems of the cattle herds. One of the main problems highlighted by cattle farmers is the lack of poor veterinary services available in their communities [30]. Cattle farmers purchase drugs from foot peddlers to treat their animals. All the cattle ranches visited in Sierra Leone have drugs to treat their animals. Cattle farmers refuse government officials or livestock officer access to their animals.

Cattle milk is a significant source of brucellosis. When people pasteurize milk, they reduce human infection. Resource-limited or poor communities do not pasteurize milk due to their long-standing traditional beliefs and cultural practices and the complete lack of public health implications of raw milk consumption [31]. These food products from the informal sector escape formal health and safety practices, thereby increasing the spread of brucellosis to the general public [32].
