A cross-sectional survey was conducted to estimate the incidence of small ruminant abortion and identify its major causes and potential risk factors in goat and sheep flocks in three agroecology and production systems of Ethiopia. Information on pregnancy outcomes and management risk factors were collected for 299 goat and 242 sheep flocks. Blood samples were collected from 133 sheep and 90 goat flocks and tested for Coxiella burnetii, Brucella spp., Chlamydia abortus, and Toxoplasma gondii. A causal diagram outlined relationships between potential predictor variables and abortion in the flock. The effect of management and exposure to infectious causes on the number of abortions in the flock across agroecology was tested using zero-inflated negative binomial regression. Results showed that 142 (58.68%) goats and 53 (17.73%) sheep flocks reported abortions in the 12 months before the survey. The mean annual flock abortion percentages were 16.1% (±26.23) for does and 12.6% (±23.5) for ewes. Farmers perceived infectious diseases, extreme weather conditions, feed shortage, physical traumas, and plant poisoning as the most important causes of abortion. A higher proportion of abortion was recorded during the short rainy season (March to May) and start of the short dry and cold season (June to August) in the lowland mixed crop-livestock and pastoral agroecology and production system, respectively. Overall, 65.41% sheep and 92.22% goat flocks tested positive for one or more abortion causing agents, namely, C. burnetti, C. abortus, Brucella spp., and T. gondii; mixed infection was found in 31.58% sheep and 63.33% goat flocks. Spending the night in a traditional house and providing supplementary feed for pregnant dams were important management factors which significantly (p ≤ 0.05) decreased the risk of abortion by 2.63 and 4.55 times, respectively. However, the presence of other livestock species and dogs in the household and exposure of the flock to Brucella spp. or anyone of the four tested infectious agents significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased the risk of abortion in sheep and goat flocks. In general, abortion is a challenge for small ruminant production in the study area especially in lowland agroecology and calls for improvement in husbandry practices, health care and biosecurity practices.

Many causes of abortion in livestock are due to zoonotic pathogens that pose serious infection risks for humans. Carefully designed, empirical One Health research allows to untangle the complexity around these risks and guides the development of practical health education guidelines and best prevention practices for veterinary public health interventions. To support this, the study presented here aimed at understanding knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on zoonotic risks from livestock birth products among rural communities in Ethiopia. From July 2018 to February 2019, a cross-sectional study design was conducted with 327 randomly selected farmers and pastoralists in five districts in three regions in Ethiopia. The structured questionnaire consisted of 48 items to evaluate knowledge (24), attitude (9), and prevention practices (15) related to zoonotic diseases risks from livestock birth products. A unidimensional two-parameter logistic (2-PL) Item Response Theory (IRT) model was used for zoonotic disease risk KAP scale construction and evaluation. The 2-PL IRT model was fitted to determine the probability of a person to appropriately respond to an item with a provided zoonotic disease KAP level. We then examined differential item functioning (DIF) concerning to five important covariates. The attitude subscale had the highest total mean score (37.3, ± 28.92%) and the knowledge subscale had the lowest mean score (22.4, ± 33.6%) among the three subscales. The mixed model regression analysis indicated that region was the only apparent factor explaining differences in zoonotic diseases knowledge, attitude, and practice total mean scores. The knowledge and attitude subscales had good internal consistency with a Cronbach's α at 0.83 and 0.81, respectively, whereas the practice subscale had lower internal consistency with 0.51. There was a positive association between responding to knowledge questions correctly and a positive attitude (r2 = 0.44, p < 0.0001) and self-reported good practice (r2 = 0.307, p < 0.0001). The differential item functioning test showed that 19 of 37 (51.35%) and 12 of 37 (32.43%) items of the retained KAPs survey items had non-uniform and uniform DIF linked to at least one covariate respectively and all the covariates were related with DIF in at least one item. This study found substantial knowledge gaps, a low level of the desired attitude, and high-risk behavioural practices regarding zoonotic disease from livestock birth products. Consequently, livestock keepers are likely exposed to pathogens and thus these practices are an important contributing factor for zoonotic disease infection in people.

The objective of this study was to characterize the distribution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from livestock feces and soil in smallholder livestock systems. A cross-sectional study was carried out sampling 77 randomly selected households in four districts representing two agroecologies and production systems. E. coli was isolated and the susceptibility to 15 antimicrobials was assessed. Of 462 E. coli isolates tested, resistance to at least one antimicrobial was detected in 52% (43.7–60.8) of isolates from cattle fecal samples, 34% (95% CI, 26.2–41.8) from sheep samples, 58% (95% CI, 47.9–68.2) from goat samples and 53% (95% CI, 43.2–62.4) from soil samples. AMR patterns for E. coli from livestock and soil showed some similarities, with the highest prevalence of resistance detected against streptomycin (33%), followed by amoxycillin/clavulanate (23%) and tetracycline (8%). The odds of detecting E. coli resistance to ≥2 antimicrobials in livestock fecal samples were nearly three times (Odd Ratio—OR: 2.9; 95% CI, 1.72–5.17; p = 0.000) higher in lowland pastoral than in highland mixed crop–livestock production systems. These findings provide insights into the status of resistance in livestock and soil, and associated risk factors in low-resource settings in Ethiopia.

Improving animal welfare is a human responsibility and influenced by a person's values and experiences. Thus, it is critical to have an in-depth understanding of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of animal welfare among animal owners. For livestock in Ethiopia, the greatest proportion of livestock are reared by pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities. A cross-sectional survey covering a range of species and animal welfare aspects was carried out on a total of 197 household (117 pastoral and 80 crop-livestock owners) and recorded information on 34 animal welfare KAP items. Item response theory models (IRT) were fitted to the data from KAP items to estimate the probability of correctly answering an item. This was used as a function of the respondents' KAP level. Overall, the highest percentage of desirable scores was recorded for the knowledge scale (35.7%) and the lowest was for the practice scale (24.6%). A significant correlation (P< 0.01) was found between knowledge of the farmers and their attitude toward animal welfare and self-reported practices. Generally, households practicing mixed crop-livestock farming system had better animal welfare knowledge, attitude, and practice than pastoralist. Mixed crop-livestock farmers had better knowledge on items related to observing the nutrition condition of the animal, animal-human relationship, the importance of water, and health inspection compared to pastoralists. In contrast, pastoralists had better knowledge of items related to natural behavior expression, animal care, and animal suffering than mixed crop-livestock farmers. Pastoralists had 3.3-times higher odds than mixed crop-livestock farmers to have a positive attitude to train their animals without beating. KAP scores demonstrate the need for targeted training to improve animal well-being (i.e., housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling) across livestock holding communities in Ethiopia.

Reproductive performance is a key determinant for the efficiency of goat production. Regular monitoring of reproductive efficiency is essential to assess management and to avoid financial losses due to poor performance. To allow more objective measurement and comparisons over time, we propose a novel quantitative approach for defining annual reproductive performance by combining common performance indicators into a goat flock index. Commonly used reproductive performance measures were collected from 242 goat flocks in four districts in dryland of Ethiopia between July 2018 and February 2019. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify biologically meaningful latent components that explain annual reproductive output (ARO) and annual reproductive wastage (ARW). Together with the remaining annual reproductive performance measures, the ARO and ARW components were included in a PCA to derive an algorithm for a goat annual reproductive performance index (G-ARPI). One component representing variation in kidding interval, PC_ARO1 and PC_ARW1 was extracted and normalized to a 10-scale value. The flocks were classified into good performing (15.63%) with index > 8.5, moderately performing (48.21%) with index values ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 and poor performing (36.16%) with index < 6.5. Good performing flocks have higher scores for reproductive output measures, lower scores for reproductive wastage and lower kidding interval. The proposed G-ARPI can be used as an objective tool to compare reproductive performance between management systems, evaluate the costs of poor reproductive management and will be useful for economic models that aim to identify the most cost-efficient intervention option and monitor the impact of interventions. We present here the index for goat production in dryland systems in Ethiopia; the approach can easily be adapted to other production systems elsewhere.

The PPR Global Research and Expertise Network (GREN) plays a central role in identifying research priorities supporting the Global Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) Eradication Programme (GEP). A scoping review of PPR epidemiological research published between 2015 and 2025 was conducted to assess progress and remain gaps across research domains relevant to GREN priorities. A total of 670 PPR-related publications were retrieved. Epidemiological research constituted 46.9% of the PPR literature, pathogenesis 19.1%, diagnostics 15.6%, then vaccinology 9.5%, and immunology 7.9%. From the 273 epidemiological studies, most originated from Africa (53.1%) and Asia (37.7%). The epidemiological studies were categorized into seven domains. Molecular epidemiology and strain analysis represented the largest proportion of published studies (40.0%), followed by surveillance and disease monitoring (23.8%), transmission dynamics and risk modelling (12.5%), vaccination epidemiology (10.6%), analytical and risk factor epidemiology (8.4%), control strategy evaluation (2.9%), and socioeconomic research (1.8%). Progress towards GREN research priorities was variable. Molecular epidemiology and surveillance demonstrated the greatest methodological advancement, supported by widespread application of phylogenetics, serological surveillance, and expanding sequencing capacity across endemic settings. Transmission dynamics and risk modelling also showed increasing analytical sophistication through spatial modelling, network analysis, ecological suitability modelling, and dynamic simulation approaches, although applications remained geographically concentrated and only partially integrated into operational decision-support systems. In contrast, vaccination epidemiology, comparative evaluation of control strategies, and socioeconomic research remained limited in volume and operational integration. Across domains, important gaps persisted in implementation-focused evaluation, integrated surveillance systems, and translation of research evidence into adaptive eradication planning and policy development. Overall, the findings demonstrate substantial growth in the global PPR epidemiological evidence base over the past decade but also reveal a persistent imbalance across research domains and geographies. While major advances have been achieved in molecular characterization and descriptive surveillance, greater integration of epidemiological, operational, modelling, and socioeconomic evidence is needed to strengthen adaptive eradication planning and improve alignment between research priorities and policy implementation. Research and policy need to be better integrated, with policy needs driving research focus, with research findings then informing policy.