REGULAR ARTICLES Access to veterinary services and expenditure on pig health management: the case of smallholder pig farmers in Northern Uganda Daniel Micheal Okello 1 & Walter Odongo 1 & Tonny Aliro 2 & Elly Kurobuza Ndyomugyenyi 2 Received: 6 June 2020 /Accepted: 24 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Pig farming has gained momentum for most smallholder farmers in developing countries as a means of livelihood and household incomes. However, prospects of the pig enterprises are constrained by pig health management issues which affect both its productivity and profitability. Using a cross-sectional survey of 240 smallholder pig farmers, we assessed factors influencing farmers’ access to veterinary services and expenditure on pig health management in northern Uganda. Data was analysed using the binary logit and censored tobit regression models. Access to veterinary services was significantly influenced by pig herd size (p < 0.05), Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) membership (p < 0.1), breed (p < 0.05), production system (p < 0.05) and number of health issues recorded on farm (p < 0.01). Education level (p < 0.01), farming household members (p < 0.05), pig herd size (p < 0.01), breed (p < 0.05), previous disease incidences (p < 0.05), household labour available (p < 0.1) and access to veterinary services (p < 0.01) significantly influenced pig health expenditure. Efforts to improve access to veterinary services and improve pig health management should focus on promoting more intensive production systems and improved breeds that are associated with better access to veterinary services and reduced cost of pig health management. Keywords Smallholder . Pig production . Pig health . Expenditure . Veterinary service . Uganda Introduction Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has realized a rapid increase in pig production and consumption of pork (OECD and FAO 2016). The SSA pig population increased from 21.5 million in 2000 to 40.5 million in 2018. In 2016, the share of the gross do- mestic product (GDP) from piggery to total livestock GDP was over 3.7% (FAO 2020). According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), there are over 4.2 million pigs in Uganda (UBOS 2019), an increase of over 2.6 million pigs since 2000 (FAO 2020). The sub-sector contributes over 12% of the total livestock GDP and over 3.4% of the total agricultural GDP in the country (UBOS 2019; FAO 2020). Within the country, northern Uganda has the least pig popu- lation, with only 13% of the total pig population in the country (UBOS 2019), owned by about 10% of the households (Tatwangire 2014). Within northern Uganda, there are also significant variations across districts. For instance, the three districts of Gulu, Omoro and Kitgum have 16% of the pigs in northern Uganda (UBOS 2019) and 13% of all pig rearing households (Tatwangire 2014) in the region. Despite the low pig numbers in the region, the piggery enterprise has become an important source of food security, income and employment for an increasing number of smallholder farmers (Tatwangire 2014; Ndyomugyenyi and Kyasimire 2015; Chenais et al. 2017). The increasing interest in pig production has been at- tributed to the special characteristics of pigs such as the short gestation periods and rapid multiplication rates (Madzimure et al. 2012; Tatwangire 2014; Munzhelele et al. 2016). Prospects of the pig sub-sector are, however, constrained by pig health management issues which affects its productiv- ity and profitability (Madzimure et al. 2012; Muhanguzi et al. 2012; Tatwangire 2014; Ndyomugyenyi and Kyasimire 2015). For instance, there are persistent outbreaks of African * Daniel Micheal Okello okelloabua@gmail.com 1 Department of Rural Development and Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Gulu University, P. O. Box 166, Gulu, Uganda 2 Department of Animal Production and Range Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Gulu University, P. O. Box 166, Gulu, Uganda Tropical Animal Health and Production https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-020-02411-6