BIOSECURITY MEASURES NEEDED BY RURAL POULTRY FARMERS FOR EFFECTIVE DISEASE PREVENTION

The research was carried out in Anambra State of Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population of the study was 116 registered poultry farmers. This comprised of 51 males and 65 females. There was no sampling; the whole population was used because the population was manageable. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire which had 42 item statements. The questionnaire was structured on four-points rating scale of strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree with their nominal values of 4, 3, 2 and 1. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.83. The data collected were analyzed using mean with standard deviation statistics for the research questions, and hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. Based on the analysis of the data, it was found that isolation practices, traffic control practices and good sanitation can be effectively used to prevent poultry diseases. It was recommended among others that the poultry farmers should be given workshops, seminars and conferences on application of isolation, traffic and sanitation practices for effective poultry disease prevention.