Elucidating the perception, awareness and biosecurity practices among the live poultry/poultry-meat sellers to mitigate the risk of zoonotic salmonellosis

Zoonotic salmonellosis remains a major public health concern, especially in low-resource settings where poultry handling practices are often informal. Biosecurity measure of live poultry/poultry-meat vending shop is necessary to address this zoonoses. This study investigated the knowledge, attitudes, and biosecurity practices of poultry/poultry-meat sellers toward the risk of zoonotic salmonellosis in Bangladesh. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among the 432 poultry/poultry-meat sellers through a structured questionnaire in multistage sampling approach. Majority of the poultry/poultry-meat sellers (n=432) were male (75.5%), age between 26-34 years (31.9%), had primary education (28.9%), experience of ≤5 years (40.3%), and monthly income was <20000 BDT (43.3%). Additionally, minimal had training on live poultry marketing (33.1%), and poultry-meat processing and marketing (28.5%). The 33.34% and 62.03% of poultry/poultry-meat sellers had the good knowledge and positive attitudes respectively. While 41.43% were involved in correct biosecurity practice. Moreover, the mean KAP score was 53.12±0.89, 68.59±0.79 and 54.58±0.73 respectively. From the multivariate analyses, higher education was a strong predictor of good knowledge (Bachelor’s degree: OR=6.64, 95%CI:2.59-17.04, p<0.01), positive attitude (Bachelor’s degree: OR=13.48, 95%CI:3.72-48.87, p<0.01), and correct biosecurity practices (HS: OR=5.52, 95%CI:2.62-11.63, p<0.01; Bachelor’s degree: OR=4.81, 95%CI:2.03-11.39, p<0.01). The sellers with good knowledge, positive attitudes, and correct biosecurity practices perceived higher zoonotic risk (median=7, p<0.05), with perception co-relation that significantly influenced by education (r=0.131, p<0.01) and training (r=0.084, p<0.05). Despite moderate awareness, sellers showed notable gaps in safe practices, highlighting the need for practical training that enhances risk perception, promotes behaviour change, and builds hands-on biosecurity skills.