Sheep Herd Health Practices with Focus on Lamb Health – a Study among Sheep Farmers in the Highlands of Ethiopia - Prevalent sheep herd health practices among smallholder sheep farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia

Preventive health care and healthcare routines are practiced to prevent disease and possible subsequent death in animals, regardless of species at topic. To potentiate young stock health and survival, preventive health care measures should be applied already at time of mating, and continuously be implemented during pregnancy, delivery and throughout the first living months of the offspring. Lamb mortality in Ethiopia have repeatedly been observed to be high. This study thus aims to investigate the relationship between prevalent routines and occurrence of lamb mortality in concerned herds. The study group is Ethiopian smallholder sheep farmers, and the data was collected in personal interviews strictly following an ad-hoc created questionnaire. The data aimed to qualitatively describe and document existing routines and prerequisites throughout previous year. The dataset consists of one data file (6227 rows × 124 columns) with questionnaire answers. For more information about questionnaire and variable names, see documentation files. The document files consist of a few pages with classifications and explanations of the data set. The files also incorporate the questionnaire from which the data is collected, as well as a document explaining the answers given in the interviews. The questionnaire was developed to evaluate commonly prevalent sheep herd health practices. It was developed by experts on the subject, with support in relevant literature. It was developed for this data collection solely.预防性保健（preventive health care）与保健规程（healthcare routines）的实践，旨在预防本研究涉及的各类动物罹患疾病及其后续可能发生的死亡，无论所涉动物物种为何。为提升幼畜（young stock）的健康水平与存活率，预防性保健措施应在配种（mating）阶段即启动，并在妊娠（pregnancy）、分娩（delivery）以及后代（offspring）出生后的最初数月持续实施。 埃塞俄比亚的羔羊死亡率（lamb mortality）多次被观测处于较高水平。因此，本研究旨在探究相关畜群中现行保健规程与羔羊死亡率发生情况之间的关联。本次研究的对象为埃塞俄比亚小型养羊农户（smallholder sheep farmers），数据通过严格遵循定制化问卷（ad-hoc created questionnaire）开展的个人访谈收集所得，旨在定性描述并记录过去一年间的现有保健规程与前置条件。 本数据集包含1份数据文件（data file），共6227行（rows）×124列（columns），存储问卷应答数据。如需了解问卷详情与变量名（variable names），请参阅说明文档（documentation files）。说明文档包含数页数据集分类与说明内容，同时收录了本次数据采集所用的问卷，以及一份用于解释访谈中所获应答的文档。 本问卷仅为本次数据采集开发，由该领域专家结合相关文献支持编制，旨在评估当前普遍应用的绵羊畜群保健实践方案。