A retrospective study on transmissible diseases among wildlife, domestic livestock and humans in the wildlife/livestock/human interface of the Mahikeng Game Reserve and its surrounding areas

Abstract

The key objective of this study was to formulate Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological models to analyse the scientific literature and to identify the trends and dynamics of rabies, brucellosis and tuberculosis through a modelling approach at the Mahikeng Game Reserve and its surrounding areas from 2007-2016. The Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological model was used in this study, together with the questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed the knowledge, practices and attitudes of farmers in order for the policy makers to take sound mitigation measures. The State Veterinary Department of Mahikeng provided annual data to construct the SIR (infected) models. The sum of squared deviation approach was used to fit the models to the data, with the lowest attained sum of squares indicating the best model fit to the data. Infection models and line graphs were constructed. The results from the questionnaire indicated that farmers lack knowledge about these zoonotic diseases. 63% of farmers need information on brucellosis, 43% on tuberculosis and 23 % on rabies. From the data used to model the zoonotic under study it can be concluded that spread of zoonosis at the Mahikeng interface depends more on the probability of the direct and indirect contact rate with the infected class within the population. In addition, data provided by the State Veterinary Department of Mahikeng indicated a high level of human interference, environmental variability, the impact of unpredictable ever-changing climatic conditions and distortion of assumptions of the SIR model. The government of South Africa must make it a legal requirement for all farmers to report cases of abortion, stillbirth, coughing and barking to the Veterinary department who must investigate and determine the disease take precautionary measures. Both commercial and communal farmers must attend Farmer’s Day events to gain knowledge from presentations.