ABSTRACT

Cameroon’s agriculture contributes about 20% to the GDP (gross domestic product), and employs nearly 60% of the active population. Agriculture contributes almost 40% of total exports, excluding oil. Livestock represents 13% of agricultural GDP. Pig production, which is an integral part of livestock production, is faced by many constraints such as low capital for farmers, poor technology and farming methods, and the prevalence of diseases which greatly contributes to the low development of this sector.

  This study seeks  to evaluate the  African swine fever disease which is one of the major constraints to pig production around the globe and its effect on pig farmers profitability in the Buea municipality.

  In an attempt to do this, this study made use of primary data obtained through well structured questionnaires to evaluate the prevalence and virulence of this disease, the awareness and perception of pig farmers, the level of hygiene and how it catalyzes the spread of the disease, increasing mortality and cost thereby affecting profitability.

 The linear programming technique was used to analyze the primary data through SPSS and Excel.

  It was observed that the use of vaccines and biosecurity measures were the main factors that significantly affected profit loss  negatively. There were other factors which affected profit loss negatively but they were not significant.

The study further showed that ASF and profit loss were positively related to profit loss which indicated that, the more the occurrence of ASF the more the profit loss. It was therefore recommended that the use of vaccines and biosecurity measures should be intensified by farmers to reduce their occurrence and profit loss.

Cameroon’s agriculture contributes about 20% to the GDP (gross domestic product), and employs nearly 60% of the active population. Agriculture contributes almost 40% of total exports, excluding oil. Livestock represents 13% of agricultural GDP. Pig production, which is an integral part of livestock production, is faced by many constraints such as low capital for farmers, poor technology and farming methods, and the prevalence of diseases which greatly contributes to the low development of this sector.

  This study seeks  to evaluate the  African swine fever disease which is one of the major constraints to pig production around the globe and its effect on pig farmers profitability in the Buea municipality.

  In an attempt to do this, this study made use of primary data obtained through well structured questionnaires to evaluate the prevalence and virulence of this disease, the awareness and perception of pig farmers, the level of hygiene and how it catalyzes the spread of the disease, increasing mortality and cost thereby affecting profitability.

 The linear programming technique was used to analyze the primary data through SPSS and Excel.

  It was observed that the use of vaccines and biosecurity measures were the main factors that significantly affected profit loss  negatively. There were other factors which affected profit loss negatively but they were not significant.

The study further showed that ASF and profit loss were positively related to profit loss which indicated that, the more the occurrence of ASF the more the profit loss. It was therefore recommended that the use of vaccines and biosecurity measures should be intensified by farmers to reduce their occurrence and profit loss.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION:                          

1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Agriculture is a cardinal sector in the economy of Cameroon. Cameroon is a low-income country with a population of 28156350 (MDPI 2021) as of 2022 with about 24% living below the international poverty line. Agriculture employs about 30% of the rural population with about ⅓ involved in livestock production and 23.3% involved in pig farming (MDPI 2021)

Agriculture can be divided into many sectors which are livestock production, Horticulture, Animal husbandry, Fishery, Poultry, dairy farming, Agricultural Marketing, and Social forestry, with pig production a significant part of livestock production. Agriculture originated approximately 10000 years ago when men were hunters and gatherers, which till date has evolved so much that many different modern techniques of cultivation, modern machines and genetically modified organisms are used, going a long way to increase farmers output and profitability. This change with time has brought about some disadvantageous changes such as the existence of some diseases which increases cost of production, high mortality rates of plants and animals and decreases profitability for farmers and transformers. Taking the case of livestock production, particularly pig production, many diseases  such as exudative dermatitis, coccidiosis, respiratory diseases, mastitis, porcine parvovirus, African swine fever (ASF) are seen to greatly affect pig production. This research will focus on the effect of ASF on pig farmers profitability but not the other diseases because ASF is the deadliest pig disease which can cause up to 100% losses at its invasion in a farm. ASF is caused by the African swine fever virus which was first diagnosed in Kenya in 1910 and was reported as a disease which causes 100% mortality in pigs once it invades the farm. It was later seen in South Africa, Malawi, and Angola and currently is present in about 32 African countries (FAO, 2013). So far, according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), no main cure for this disease has been discovered, only vaccines to control its spread.

        The ASFV was introduced in Cameroon in 1982 which took just two months for the disease to spread through the major pig producing regions in Cameroon, Killing about 60% of the total number of pigs in the country that year. Since then the disease has been occurring, infecting and killing many pigs in the country. The last occurrence of this fatal disease was on July 10 2022 killing about 6254 pigs (MDPI 2021). Many types of this virus have been isolated but five main types are viral in Cameroon which are the CAM82, CAM85, CAM86, CAM87 and the CAM88. The CAM stands for the origin of the isolate which is Cameroon and the numbers 82, 85, 86, 87, 88 stands for the year (1982 to 1988) of isolation of the virus species. They differ from each other by some fragments of one of their terminals. These viruses’ function by interning into the host immune system, multiplying in it, releasing proteins which inhibits the production of some proteins from the host cell which prevents apoptosis. Apoptosis is a process in which a cell self-destructs by releasing some toxic chemicals into its surroundings. The host cell then self-destructs leading to the death of the organism (pig) (MDPI 2021).

          The virus can be transmitted through contact of infected and uninfected pigs (through body fluids blood, urine, saliva, nasal fluids and rectal fluids) when the pigs come in contact for more than two hours, human activities such as: not following sanitary majors, going around the farm without disinfecting hands cloths boots and other animals going through the farm carrying the virus, selling and consumption of infected pork by those who get in contact with healthy pigs, feed to pig infection which is done by pigs consuming grass as food which has been infected by the virus maybe when an infected pig has excreted on it (mostly observed when the pig is allowed to range freely) (EC2014a), wild boar (wild or bush pig) to domestic pig transmission, soft ticks to domestic pig (the soft tick is an insect which carries the virus for at least twelve weeks and it has the possibility to replicate in it. This insect feeds on the pig as a parasite which then transmits the virus to the pig) (veterinary records 2021)

So far, this virus can’t be completely treated but can only be controlled in order to reduce its effects on pig farmers and all the actors along the pig/pork chain.

1.2. STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL PROBLEM

The occurrence of the ASFV in Cameroon in 1982 has caused massive losses to pig farmers in the country, Buea not excluded. The causes of the wild spread of this disease can be said to be attributed to factors like low levels of education, poor sanitation and hygiene, poor extension services, poor training on pig farming, poor copping strategies. This disease has the possibility of wiping out up to 100% of an entire pig farm thereby leading negative impacts such as loss of income, loss of jobs of pig farmers and all those involved in the pig/pork chain, increased mortality, declining interest of farmers to invest on pig farms or expand their pig farms, price fluctuations leading to difficulties in determining pig pork price trends, poverty and hardship due to decrease profitability, decrease income. This goes a long way to affect the entire country as it leads to decrease in the country’s GDP, increase food insecurity, drop in the speed of development due to low standards of living. The figure one below shows the various courses and consequences or effects of the occurrence and prevalence of ASF which in the long run will lead to decrease in profitability.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study was: to evaluate the effects of African swine fever on pig farmer’s profitability in the Buea municipality.

Specifically, this study was out to:

1. To evaluate the prevalence and virulence of ASFV in the Buea municipality, i.e. how often it occurs, how fast it spreads how much damage it causes and how long it takes during occurrence
2. To assess the preventive and mitigation strategies currently used by farmers in order to reduce the spread of the disease.

iii. To estimate the effect of ASF on profitability of pig farmers in Buea.

1.4. Research Questions

Given the research objectives, the following questions arise:

1. What is the prevalence and virulence of ASFV in the Buea municipality, i.e. how often it occurs, how fast it spreads how much damage it causes and how long it takes during occurrence?
2. Which preventive and mitigation strategies do farmers currently use in order to reduce the spread of the disease?

iii. What effect does ASF have on profitability on pig farming in Buea?

1.5. Research Hypothesis

Given the problem at hand, the following hypothesis were set to analyses the effect of ASF on farmer’s profitability.

This study hypothesized that:

H0: ASF does not significantly effects profitability of pig farming in the Buea Municipality

H1: ASF significantly effects profitability of pig farming in the Buea Municipality