This study was carried out in Moyamba District to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of goat and sheep owners on mange with respect to its prevalence, impact on livelihood, management strategy and general constraints faced by the farmers. A total of 210 small ruminant farmers were randomly selected within the most populated goat and sheep villages in three chiefdoms. The data obtained through a semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS (version 23.0). The results of the investigation showed that 79.0% of the respondents were male, 89.5% were married and 78.6% were illiterate. 74.3%, 19.5% and 6.2% of the respondents were engaged in farming, trading and government job respectively. The major contributions of small ruminants to the household level were for traditional practices (45.2%), income (22.9%), religious obligations (14.3%) and food (12.9%). The respondents’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on mange infestation (skin disease, etiology, host diversity, mode of transmission, clinical signs, seasonal occurrence, species most affected, factors responsible for continuous outbreaks and spread, and response mechanism to outbreak) were encouraging. Different constraints affecting goats and sheep production in the studied areas as perceived by farmers were lack of support (95.2%), poor extension service (94.8%), inadequate animal healthcare delivery (90.5%), parasite invasion (89.5%) and continuous disease outbreak (75.7%) are key among others. Effective veterinary services and good animal husbandry practices are vital in mitigating the various challenges affecting farmers in the district.

Keywords: Constraint, Livelihood, Mange, Parasite, Traditional, Treatment.

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