Human-livestock diseases

Cue: While it?s always possible for accidents to happen on a farm, especially when using heavy or sharp equipment, farming is not usually regarded as a very dangerous occupation. However, there are health risks that many farmers are not aware of. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides, for example, if handled or applied wrongly can cause serious illness. And for farmers who keep livestock there is also a risk of catching diseases from their animals. While the majority of animal diseases cannot be caught by humans, a few serious ones can. They are called zoonotic diseases, or zoonoses, and if they are not treated quickly they can prove fatal for human sufferers. Kwenkam Paul of Cameroon?s ministry responsible for livestock spoke to Martha Chindong about the dangers of zoonotic diseases and how farmers and veterinary technicians can reduce them. Martha started by asking him to give some examples of these diseases that farmers are at risk of catching from their livestock. IN: ?Thank you very much Martha ?? OUT: ??. This is very very important.? DUR?N 4?52? BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Kwenkam Paul describing how livestock farmers can prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Transcript Paul Thank you very much Martha. There are so many diseases that affect both animals and humans, which we call zoonotic diseases, or zoonoses. There are many of them, it will depend on the animal species. For example in cattle, we have tuberculosis, we have brucelosis, these are examples. In poultry we have Newcastle to some extent. In pigs we have swine erysipelas etc. Chindong Now doctor, from your experience among farmers and the farmers? communities, how are these diseases transmitted from animals to farmers? Paul For example, like swine erysipelas, which is a very important zoonosis among our pig population. Now because farmers are always working with these pigs, it entails that if the pigs come down with erysipelas, the farmers are immediately exposed. Therefore, what do we tell farmers? We tell them that you should not handle your pigs ...