Attitudes of consumers and live-poultry workers to central slaughtering in controlling H7N9: a cross-sectional study

• Published in: BMC Public Health
• Main Authors: Xiao Lin, Dingmei Zhang, Xinwei Wang, Yun Huang, Zhicheng Du, Yaming Zou, Jiahai Lu, Yuantao Hao
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2017
• Subjects: Attitudes; Central slaughtering policy; H7N9; Consumers; Live-poultry traders; Poultry farm workers; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Avian flu
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4374-9; https://doaj.org/article/d84cc54638d34ba2a45662b2dab42820

Abstract Background Guangdong Province in the Pearl River Delta of Southeast China is among the areas in the country with the highest rates of avian flu cases. In order to control the outbreak of human-infected H7N9 cases, Guangdong launched a new policy on the central slaughtering of live poultry in 2015. This study aims to evaluate attitudes of consumers and live-poultry workers toward the policy. The live-poultry workers consisted of two sub-groups: live-poultry traders and poultry farm workers. Methods Consumers and live-poultry workers from Guangdong were enrolled by stratified multi-stage random sampling. Online and field surveys were conducted to investigate participants’ attitudes on policy implementation. Questionnaires were developed to quantify participant demographics, to collect information about attitudes toward the policy, and to identify influential factors of policy acceptability. Proportional odds logistics regression was used in the univariate and multivariate analyses. A total of 1449 consumers, 181 live-poultry traders, and 114 poultry farm workers completed the study. Results Policy acceptability percentages among consumers, live-poultry traders, and poultry farm workers were 57.1, 37.9, and 62.6%, respectively. Logistics regression shows that consumers tended not to support the policy if they were males, if they were concerned with the food safety of chilled products, and if they preferred purchasing live poultry. Live-poultry traders tended not to support if they were subsidized by the government, if they were males, if they experienced a drop in trading volume, and if they were unclear whether avian flu was a preventable disease. Finally, poultry farm workers tended not to support if they experienced a drop in trading volume, if they operated a poultry farm on a small to medium scale, and if they experienced inconvenience in their work due to the policy. Conclusions The study reveals a substantial refusal or slowness to accept the policy. Failure to accept the policy results from varying ...