| Sumario: | Aim: The study was conducted to assess the animal health, zoonoses and food safety issues among extensive (pastoralists and agro pastoralists) and intensive cattle keepers from Morogoro and Tanga regions of Tanzania dairy value chain in order to develop a disease identification and prioritization framework based upon participatory approach. Methodology: The study was carried out in 8 villages within Tanga and Morogoro regions of Tanzania from 13th June- 20th July 2012. Mixed gender consisting of 192 participants took part in the study. The study employed a Participatory Risk Assessment (PRA) approach to assess risks which encompasses open ended questions, matrix ranking and focus group discussions. Findings and Conclusions: The 192 participants identified and ranked constraints of which cattle diseases was the constraint common to all the villages with variable ranking. Tick-borne disease (East Coast fever (ECF) and anaplasmosis), Contagious bovine pleuropneumomia (CBPP), foot and mouth disease (FMD), lumpy skin disease (LSD), trypanosomosis, helminthiasis and anthrax were identified as the most important cattle diseases that deprive farmers of benefits from their cattle in descending order. East Coast fever and anaplasmosis were associated with ticks and some type of grass in the bush. Lumpy skin disease, FMD, trypanosomosis and CBPP affect mainly the pastoralists and helminths and anthrax were only reported by the intensive/semi-intensive farmers. The pastoralists had a much better knowledge of animal diseases than the intensive/semi-intensive farmers, which could be attribute to their history of livestock keeping and close contact to livestock. The main zoonoses and milk borne diseases identified were rabies, tuberculosis, anthrax, Rift Valley fever and FMD. Other diseases mentioned as zoonoses but were not zoonoses included typhoid fever, malaria, HIV/AIDS, CBPP, measles, and amoebic dysentery. Boiling of milk prior to consumptions is uncommon among the extensive farmers and even among the intensive farmers, less than half boil milk. The pastoralists were of the opinion that drinking raw blood is still very common as well as consuming ruminal juice. Pastoralists lack professional veterinary services while intensive farmers rely on the veterinary services. High animal disease incidence, lack of adequate water and feed, lack of market for milk and live animals are the biggest constraints in the sector. Inadequate knowledge and poor awareness of zoonoses and milk borne diseases coupled with risky eating consumption habits are the most likely to contribute a lot in exposing them to zoonoses and milk borne diseases. Recommendations: The following were recommended; PRA tools developed can effectively be used in other value chains to assess food safety and animal health risks, Public health education to create mass awareness on animal and human heath disease etiology and prevention. Good animal disease management practices are recommended to reduce livestock losses the farmers incur. Future study should consider use of medical and veterinary data from hospitals and reference laboratories to aid drawing conclusions. Finally, we recommended further study/research on some suspected human and cattle diseases/symptoms to ascertain them and their prevalence.
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