Knowledge needs for livestock breeders in causes of animals' sudden death in Almahalabiya District of Nineveh

The research aimed to determine the knowledge need for cattle and sheep breeders in the causes of sudden animal death in Almahalabiya/Nineveh Governorate, northern Iraq. The personal, social and communicative characteristics of the respondents were identified, and the relationship between the cognitive needs of animal breeders and the independent factors included in the study were identified. Where a proportional stratified random sample of size (10%) was selected from the selected villages with a population of 100 educators. A two-part questionnaire was prepared. The first part included measuring independent factors, while the second part included five domains and five items in each field to measure the cognitive needs of the animal breeder. The validity of the questionnaire was verified using apparent validity and content validity. Stability was confirmed by the Alpha-Cronbach method and the stability factor was 0.86. The data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation and the Spearman correlation. The results showed that about 92% of the respondents need intermediate to high cognitive skills in the field of causes of sudden death of cattle and sheep. The study showed a significant correlation between cognitive needs and variables in the number of years of work and the number of training courses, while there was no significant correlation with the variables of age, gender, academic qualification, and agricultural information sources.