Factors influencing adoption of New Castle Disease Vaccine in Kakamega County in Kenya

Kenya has approximately 28 million poultry of which 22 million (76%) are indigenous chicken kept on free-range system by small-scale farmers in rural and peri-urban areas. Poultry production requires low initial capital and maintenance costs; however, predation and disease hinders this potential from full exploitation by 50-74% and 36-50% respectively. New castle disease (NCD) is the major cause of mortality in indigenous chicken flock. In Western Kenya, vaccination using heat labile live vaccines has been in use for its control. Due to high costs incurred in handling the vaccines, only large-scale commercial farms have the capacity to meet the demand. This leaves out the small-scale indigenous chicken farmers who produce over 70% of meat and 50% of eggs consumed in Kenya. This study was undertaken in January 2011 with the main objective being to determine mortality due to NCD and the factors influencing the adoption of its vaccine. Descriptive survey using questionnaire was used and forty respondents were involved the study. Only 35% of the respondent in the study area had adopted the vaccination and out of all the chicks hutched, only 45% survived to maturity. The loss due to predation and diseases were 45% and 55% respectively. The factors that influenced adoption were effectiveness, ease of availability, lack of any other option and affordability of vaccine at 34.6%, 26.9%, 23.1% and 15.4% respectively.