A community-based intervention approach to control disease outbreaks and climate-related deaths in communally raised goat kids in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

A community-based intervention study was conducted, from April 2017 to March 2019, on 512 kids born from flocks of 30 purposively selected households in ten villages within Alice district of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of combined efforts from the research team and farmers to control disease outbreaks and climate change-related deaths. Diseases and climate-related deaths were diagnosed based on clinical signs, laboratory results and relevant necropsy records. One hundred and thirty two kids died in year-1, accounting for 56.17%, while sixty two kids died in year-2, accounting 22.38% for mortality rate. Seasonal prevalence of helminthosis (P=0.0058), diarrhea (P=0.0056) and acquired injuries (P=0.0044) to predatory attacks predisposed to various causes of mortalities. Tick loads were only recorded (P=0.0069) to kids older than 90 days. Death due to heartwater (P=<0.0001) was prevalent to kids older than 90 days during hot-dry and hot-wet seasons. Gastrointestinal problems (P=0.0024) were recorded throughout the year irrespective (P=0.0080) of the age group. Wound-related deaths were enrolled throughout (P= 0.0042) the four seasons. Kids younger than 45 days died from pneumonia (P=0.0003) and hypothermia (P=0.0058) during cold-dry months. Does in parity 1 were the only victims to abortions (P=0.0002), stillbirths (P=<0.0001) and dystocia (P=<0.0001). A decline in kid mortalities in year-2 indicates that the approach was a moderate success. However, this requires further consideration regarding affordability and accessibility prior to implementing the intervention model at a broader scale.