Determinants of veterinary services utilization among poultry farmers in Saki-East local government area, Oyo state, Nigeria

Abstract EN

The study examined the determinants of poultry veterinary services utilization in Saki-East local government area of Oyo state, Nigeria.

data were collected from poultry farmers using a well-structured questionnaire.

descriptive statistics were used to analyze farmers’ personal and farm’s characteristics while regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between utilization of veterinary services and other variables.

poultry farming was a male dominated business.

the mean age and family size of the respondents were 40 years and 7 persons respectively.

majority (78.4%) of the poultry farmers were married while (89.2%) of them had acquired one form of formal education, the mean years of experience were 6 years.

the major source of information was friends (74.8%) while the mean monthly income was ₦61,147.40.

the available veterinary services were disease diagnosis (x̅ = 2.11), provision of drugs (x̅ = 2.05), management of poultry diseases (x̅ = 2.02) and treatment of diseases (x̅ = 2.00) while the veterinary services utilized were treatment of poultry diseases (x̅ = 2.15), provision of drugs (x̅ = 2.14), diseases diagnosis (x̅ = 2.05) and management of poultry diseases (x̅ = 2.04).

major constraints to utilizing veterinary services were high cost of veterinary services (x̅ = 2.78), poor accessibility of veterinary services (x̅ = 2.77) and little or no availability of veterinary services (x̅ = 2.68).

the determinants of utilization of veterinary services include farm income (t = 2.252), availability of veterinary services (t = 8.652) and constraints to utilization of veterinary services (t = -2.019).

access to veterinary services among farmers should be improved by subsidizing veterinary service cost.

also the number of health and extension personnel should be increased through employment.