Impact of climate change on the incidences of small ruminant diseases in a pastoral area of Kenya

Participatory epidemiological methods were used to establish local perceptions and livestock owner’s knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) of risk factors that impacts climate variability and the seasonal variations in incidences of livestock diseases, disease vectors, intermediate hosts and rainfall in pastoral Rift valley of Kenya. The interaction of the molecular biology of the pathogen itself; vectors (if any); farming practice, land use; zoological and environmental factors; and the establishment of new microenvironments and microclimates were important in forecasting how contagious caprine pleuronemonia, enterotoxaemia and sheep and goat pox occurred. Thus, the future for traditional pastoralists is depressing if they depend on an environment that may no longer support them. A risk assessment framework was used to examine factors directly affected by climate change or indirectly by human activity, such as land use (e.g. deforestation), transport and movement of animals, intensity of livestock farming and habitat change and their relationship with emergence of unexpected disease events. The present study recommended implementing disease management practices and policy measures to mitigate the impact of climate variability on the spread of livestock diseases.