Pre- and post-training on event-based surveillance evaluation among poultry and pig farmers in Nan and Si Sa Ket Provinces, Thailand

Abstract

Over the past two decades, many infectious diseases have been emerging and remained a significant public health concern, particularly zoonotic diseases. Bureau of Epidemiology (BOE), Department of Disease Control (DDC) and Thailand MOPH-US CDC Collaboration (TUC) have cooperated to conduct a training program on event-based surveillance among poultry and pig farmers in Nan and Si Sa Ket provinces. To evaluate farmers' knowledge and practices towards zoonoses and event-based surveillance, a cross sectional study was conducted. The training involved didactic lecture sessions, outbreak scenarios, and exercises by using a role play technique implemented among the groups of participating farmers. All farmers were administered pre- and post-training tests to examine their understanding and practices relating to the event-based surveillance in the communities. A comparison and analysis of proportion and percentage between pre- and post-training tests (Paired t-test) was conducted at a statistical significance (p-value) level of <0.05. There were 238 farmers participating in the training program. Most participants were small and medium-sized farm owners and aged between 41-60 years. Of these, 147 (61.8%) were female. Regarding their understanding about abnormal events in the communities, 95.2% of them (229 farmers) had well understood what exactly aberrant events mean and knew how to notify those abnormal events to the relevant local authorities. A mean score of the pre-training test was 4.5 out of 6 and the post-training score was found to have increased to 4.9, which represents a statistically significant difference (p-<0.0001). Main communications channels through which the farmers obtained knowledge and information includes a direct interaction with local livestock officers, followed by public address system in the communities, neighbors, local health officers, and broadcast radio and television. The role play-based training can create valuable experiences for the farmers and make them better understand and remember what they have learned. A multi-channel notification platform between the farmers and local authorities will need to be properly created to suit particular local settings so as to ensure timeliness and sensitivity of the notification of any abnormal events if they occur in their communities.