A retrospective study on monthly disease reports from some area veterinary offices in Bauchi State, Nigeria

A retrospective study to determine the completeness and content of monthly disease reports (MDRs) from eight Area Veterinary Offices (AVOs) was conducted at the office of the Director Veterinary Services (DVS) Bauchi State, Nigeria. The result revealed submissions of MDRs made by all the AVOs at the office of the Director Veterinary Services were less than the expected 60 monthly disease reports. Among all the AVOs, Azare had the highest available report that reached 70% of the expected reports, while Shira presented the lowest available MDR of 10%. An observation on the content of MDR showed no uniformity in the format of disease reporting from all the AVOs. The content also showed a total of 1,251,886 cases which were broadly categorized into poultry (225,891) cases and 1,025,995 other livestock cases. There was a significant association in the reporting of livestock cases when compared to poultry cases (p <0001, Chi-square =138600) in all the AVOs. The result showed incompleteness in the availability of MDRs presented by AVOs in the office of DVS which is suggestive of underreporting. The results from this study tend to highlight the need to strengthen monthly disease reporting among AVOs in Bauchi State, Nigeria to enable the office of the Director of Veterinary Services to use the report for early prevention and control of prevailing animal diseases and notification of diseases at national and international level.