Social acceptance of livestock-administered endectocides for malaria control in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Takalani I. Makhanthisa, Leo Braack, Maria S. Bornman, Heike Lutermann
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2022
• Subjects: Community engagements; Mosquitoes; Insecticides; Vector control; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04334-z; https://doaj.org/article/7015dfc8d8c6490fb0c847f0e200ab1e

Abstract Background Malaria continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa and conventional malaria control strategies, such as indoor residual spraying and insecticide-treated bed nets, have limited effectiveness for some malarial vectors. Consequently, the development of alternative or supplementary strategies is required. One potential strategy is the use of livestock-administered endectocides to control vector mosquitoes that feed outdoors on livestock. However, since this strategy requires support from local communities and livestock owners consenting for their animals to be treated, it can only be implemented if agreed to by affected communities. The aim of this study was to assess the social acceptance of the use of livestock-administered endectocides in the malaria endemic villages of Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa, where malaria incidence is high. Methods Questionnaires were administered to 103 livestock-owning households from four villages, namely, Gumbu, Malale, Manenzhe and Bale. The assessment included questions on the acceptability of the strategy, the type and number of livestock owned, distances between houses and kraals (overnight pens) as well as previous use and awareness of endectocides. The results were analysed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. Results The types of livestock owned by the participants comprised, cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys, with the most dominant being goats (n = 1040) and cattle (n = 964). The majority of kraals were less than 10 m from homesteads. Most participants (72.5%) were already using chemicals to treat their livestock for parasites. All participants were amenable to the implementation of the strategy, and would give consent for their animals to be treated by endectocides. Conclusions The use of livestock-administered endectocides appears to be a feasible and acceptable approach for control of animal-feeding malaria vector species in the malaria endemic villages of Vhembe District. This is ...