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.