Animal Morbidity

The indicator measures the prevalence of a specific disease amongst certain animals, for example, foot-and-mouth disease among cows. It is an indicator of animal care and of the presence of health and life-threatening disease.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of those household members primarily responsible for raising the given animals:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: How many [specify the animal – e.g. chickens] have you raised from [specify the time period]?

A1: …...

Q2: Out of these animals, how many have during this time had [specify the local, commonly used name of the disease]?

A2: …...

Do your best to secure photos of the disease’s main symptoms which the data collectors can show to the respondents to ensure that they understand what disease the data collectors are asking about.

To determine the indicator’s value, sum up the numbers of all animals affected by the disease (reported by all the respondents), divide it by the total number of animals raised by all the respondents (including those which were affected) and multiply it by 100. For example: in total 150 cows affected by foot-and-mouth disease divided by 1,000 cows and multiplied by 100 = 15% morbidity rate.

1) Since morbidity levels often differ depending on the animal's age, consider asking separately about young animals (e.g. chicks) and adult animals (e.g. chicken). 

2) Animal mortality is prone to significant seasonal differences. Do your best to collect baseline and endline data for the same recall period, in the same period of a year; otherwise it is very likely that they will not be comparable.

3) In the situations where animal mortality is expected to rapidly increase over a short period of time (e.g. due to outbreak of diseases), you should use a shorter recall period that captures the actual morbidity at the given time.