2.4 Farmers Interviews
A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from all smallholder
pig farmers within the Mathenjwa community (n=254) from April 2017 to
December 2017. The purpose of the interview was to gather information on
potential wild-domestic pigs interactions observed by the local rural
communities and to gather information on prevalent pig diseases in the
area. Pig farmers were identified at dip tanks and interviews were
conducted on their farms. The 45 minutes interview comprised of 22
questions administered in the Zulu language by the first author. To
ensure that no pig farm was missed, the exhaustive snowball method was
used (Etikan, Alkassim, & Abubakar,
2016). Farmers were asked if they observed wild suids near their farm
(Table 6, supplementary material). Observations were clustered into 2
groups of distances from their farms to the observed suids: near
(0-20km) and far (>20 km). This clustering represented
farmer’s opinions on contact rate of wild and domestic pigs from those
that are either very close or very far away from the reserve. If any
observation was made, they were asked to respond to whether they had
seen the suids a) in direct contact with domestic pigs (physical
contact) b) on their farms (close to domestic pigs) or c) close to their
farms or d) elsewhere. They were also asked to comment on diseases of
their domestic pigs and about potential outbreaks of ASF occurring in
the area. Farmers were asked if their pigs got sick or died from any
disease. If affirmative they provided symptoms. They also were asked to
name diseases that were prevalent in the study area.