2.1 Study design, study area and target population
Cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected smallholder
beef cattle farms in Northern Nigeria between June 2018 and June 2019.
Nigeria has the fifth largest cattle population in Africa, following
Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad and Tanzania, and 99% of them are indigenous
breeds concentrated in the northern part of the country (NASS 2011). The
cattle population in Nigeria was projected to increase between 20.7
million and 53.6 million heads from 2012 to 2050, respectively while
beef production was projected to increase from 392,000 tonnes in 2012 to
13,061,000 tonnes in 2050, with annual growth rate of 3.5% (FAOSTAT,
2018). These projections can be seriously undermined by antimicrobial
misuse and resistance emergence in beef cattle production systems.
Target populations were the intensive and semi-intensive beef cattle
farmers and their animals domiciled in the area during the survey
period. Study eligibility was based on a farmer mainly herding cattle
for beef production. For the purpose of this research, an intensive beef
cattle farm was defined as a herd that kept mainly cattle for the
purpose of beef production, with a permanent homestead, usually on zero
grazing. A semi-intensive beef farm was defined as a semi-settled herd
that kept mainly cattle for the purpose of beef production, cultivating
few crops and having limited movements on low range grazing within the
environment.