Assessment of community knowledge, attitude and practice on common zoonotic diseases in Jinka town, Southern Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2018 to May 2019 in and around Jinka town, to assess the community's knowledge, attitude, and practice on common zoonotic disease. A total of 330 randomly selected participants had voluntarily filled the semi-structured questionnaire. Accordingly, age, religion, education, occupation and marital status of the respondents were significantly associated with their knowledge on the zoonotic disease in which respondents with the age group greater than 15 years, orthodox and catholic religious affiliations, health professionals and married ones had greater knowledge towards zoonotic disease (P<0.05). The effect of educational background of the respondents on their attitude towards zoonotic disease treatment, prevention, control, and advantages of vaccine provision was found to be statistically significant. Among those who have a positive perception of zoonotic treatment, about 35.8% of respondents were having college and university education while 49.2% of those who didn't have a positive perception of the zoonotic disease treatment were illiterate. The educational level of the respondents was significantly associated with their practices towards zoonotic diseases (P<0.05). Respondents with lower educational levels had higher contact with animals, consume more raw meat, didn't take pre-exposure vaccination, and didn't take immediate action for infected animals by zoonotic diseases. In conclusion, community education and awareness programs are required for further improvement of the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the community on zoonotic diseases. Besides, the integration of one health approach towards the control of zoonotic diseases is important.