Overview

Across sub-Saharan Africa, the surveillance and reporting of poultry diseases is in many cases low and deficient. Laboratories lack, in many cases, the necessary diagnostic equipment or technical skills to conduct tests. Additionally, surveillance systems are not adequately built and there is a fragmented national and regional response to disease outbreak.

EDSAP (2024-2027) supports the expansion of laboratory capacity and capability of three large poultry production companies in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria. The laboratory expansion will enhance current capability from serological analysis to include bacteriology and associated anti-microbial assessments and molecular biological analysis for the identification and initial typing of poultry viral diseases, such as new variants of avian influenza of infectious bursal disease.

By having this capacity in-house, the poultry companies can reduce the logistics and bureaucracy of shipping samples to other countries and more rapidly respond to disease outbreaks thus providing appropriate interventions to their farmer customers.

Objectives

• To build a sustainable business model for laboratory operations, ensuring the continuation of enhanced diagnostic services beyond the project’s duration.
• To increase in-house diagnostic capacity in private laboratories, with enhanced capabilities in molecular biology, bacteriology, and AMR testing.
• To improve disease reporting and, in turn, to influence more transparent and effective public disease management practices.

Overview

SEAMLiSS (2023-2024) was an innovative project consisting of interrelated and mutually supportive animal health commercial development platforms with the potential to comprehensively and systematically address the key constraints hampering the animal health market in Africa:

1. Market Intelligence Platform (in partnership with AgNexus Africa): an online platform to address the lack of market data in Africa. By developing a robust methodology for generating accurate market data, the animal health industry will be able to make evidence-led investment decisions in the African market.
2. Telehealth Platform (in partnership with a consortium of VetNOW, Nadis and AVTA): a tele-medicine/digital services app specifically catering for African SSP customers.

SEAMLiSS (which was under implementation throughout 2024) delivered a minimum viable products (MVPs) for market intelligence platform covering Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as well as a telehealth application for Kenya. By collectively addressing the key constraints facing the animal health value chain, these platforms will offer a systematic, holistic and seamless approach to generating impact for African SSPs through an efficiently functioning animal health market.

Achievements

• Development of the first integrated market intelligence platform for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
• Digital point-of-sale devices issued to 731 agrodealers in Kenya and 550 in Tanzania.
• Development of two apps: a telemedicine app that enables remote livestock care, and a clinical sign recognition app that uses images of livestock diseases and symptoms to increase the accuracy of diagnosis.