Knowledge, attitude and practices of primary livestock raisers regarding anthrax and anthrax vaccination of livestock in outbreak and non-outbreak areas of Bangladesh

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Outbreaks are periodically reported among people and livestock in Bangladesh. From 2009–2020, approximately 4000 suspected human cutaneous anthrax cases were reported. Although annual livestock vaccination against anthrax is one of the primary control methods, we do not know the livestock vaccination practices in Bangladesh. We aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices of livestock raisers regarding the use of anthrax vaccination. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in four districts with the highest number of suspected human anthrax cases and four districts having no reported cases from October 2017 to March 2018. We randomly selected 81 villages in total; 10–11 villages per district. From each village, 20 households with at least one domestic animal (cattle/buffalo/goat/sheep) were randomly enrolled and the primary livestock raisers were interviewed. Among the 1620 livestock raisers, 36 % had heard of the livestock disease “anthrax” or “Torka” (the local name); 48 % from outbreak districts and 24 % from non-outbreak districts (p < 0.001). Only 11 % of total respondents were aware that anthrax caused human disease. Overall, 25 % of respondents reported vaccinating their livestock for any disease. Among those, only 18 % reported vaccinating against anthrax. Most (73 %) of the livestock raisers who did not vaccinate their animals reported they were unaware of the vaccine against anthrax. Livestock raisers reported being willing to pay an average of 0.12 USD per vaccine for cattle/buffalo, and 0.06 USD for goats/sheep. Although the reported use of livestock vaccination was low in outbreak districts, respondents were more likely to be aware of anthrax. These findings highlight a need for community engagement with targeted education, and risk communication for livestock raisers regarding knowledge of anthrax, the importance of vaccination, and increasing the accessibility of anthrax vaccine in endemic villages.