Abstract:
Rainfall, temperature and relative humidity are key weather factors influencing
disease occurrences in farm animals. Foot and mouth disease (FMD) frequently
affects cattle herds in the dry and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka, leading to
significant economic and livestock management challenges. Therefore, the current
study aimed to assess the relationship between weather patterns and FMD outbreaks
in the North Central Province (NCP) of Sri Lanka. Data were collected from 10 and
5 veterinary regions (VRs) in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts
respectively covering the years 2014 to 2024. Records on FMD cases, cattle
population and fatalities due to FMD were obtained from the veterinary surgeon's
offices of each VR, while relevant weather data were collected from the
Meteorological Department of Sri Lanka. The study tested the correlation between
weather elements and disease incidents to identify the possible interactions between
each weather element and the FMD using the Spearman Rho correlation test using
SPSS software. The results showed that there was no correlation between the weather
elements and disease occurrence. However, when considering the year as a factor
there was a partial negative correlation with the number of cases reported (-0.243
correlation coefficient and p<0.05) and fatalities due to FMD (-0.207 correlation
coefficient and p<0.05). Also, the total number of FMD cases reported was partially
positively correlated with the total monthly rainfall. Thus, it can be concluded that
when monthly rainfall was high the number of FMD cases reported was high
confirming a known fact that the FMD prevalence is higher among cattle herds during
the northeast monsoon rainy season in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts
which need to be further confirmed with consistent data.
