Questionnaire Survey on Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on COVID 19 Outbreak Among Veterinarians in Nigeria

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a viral pneumonia-like disease caused by novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China on December 31 2019, and assumed a pandemic status; infecting about 30 million people, with a mortality in excess of 957,000 as at 20 September, 2020. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practices concerning COVID-19 among veterinarians with a view to detecting variables that may hinder their effective contributions towards the management and control of COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.The study found that male veterinarians had significantly good knowledge (p=0.012, OR=0.157, CI=0.03-0.66) and attitude (OR=18.415, CI=1.45-5.16, P=0.011) towards COVID-19 than female counterparts. Similar results were also recorded regarding practices (OR=2.941, CI=1.03-8.36, P=0.043). Educational qualification was found to be significantly associated with attitude of veterinarians in respect of COVID-19 prevention (OR=0.473, CI=0.073-0.011, P=0.006). Thus, gender (male) was found to be independent predictors of good knowledge, attitude and practices regarding COVID-19. In addition, educational qualification was also found to be an independent predictor of attitude of veterinarians regarding COVID-19 control. Veterinarians generally had good knowledge about the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19. However, despite their knowledge, the level of willingness of veterinarians to support national response activities was still poor. This study advocated for a collaborative efforts (one-health) between medics and vets in tackling future pandemics/infectious diseases like COVID-19. In addition, since most vet knows the basics of infectious diseases like COVID-19, they can be deployed for national response activities.