Assessment of socio-behavioural correlates and risk perceptions regarding anthrax disease in tribal communities of Odisha, Eastern India.

Background: This study is a baseline survey to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices with regards to the anthrax disease among the communities before demonstrating a One Health approach for elimination of human anthrax in an endemic district of Odisha. A total of 2670 respondents from 112 villages of 14 blocks were interviewed for the study using a structured questionnaire by multi-stage sampling method. Descriptive statistics were reported and logistic regression was performed to estimate the relationship between the variables and knowledge of anthrax.

Result: Out of 2670 participants in the study, 76.25% were male and about half were illiterate. Most of the respondents (54.19%) were involved in agriculture as an occupation. 71% of the respondents had livestock in their houses and farming was the main purpose for keeping the livestock. Only one-fifth of the respondents (20.26%) knew about anthrax and a majority of them have come across the disease during community outbreaks. Almost 25.9% of livestock owners had knowledge about vaccination against anthrax disease although 83.4% of the livestock owners disposed the animal carcass by burial method.

Conclusion: The study findings indicated that the community members had poor knowledge of cause, symptoms, transmission and prevention of anthrax disease which may be improved by a One Health approach.