Author: team galvmed

Reflections on how Public-Private Partnerships can address FMD in Eastern Africa

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On June 23rd 2020, the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), in collaboration with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), launched an online course: Applying Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in the Progressive Control of FMD and Similar Transboundary Animal Diseases. I had the opportunity to attend this four-week course, and it opened my eyes to key elements of PPPs in the veterinary domain, which are highly relevant to our AgResults FMD Vaccine Challenge Project.


The course covered a range of topics, such as exploring needs and identifying opportunities for PPPs, building a business case for PPPs, and developing an enabling environment for sustainable PPPs. Participants included public and private sector stakeholders from Eastern Africa as well as other parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

During the four-week course, we went through an interactive journey of live webinars, case studies, presentations, working group discussions, and panel sessions with renowned veterinary experts and practitioners of PPPs. We were guided through Zooland, an imaginary country with livestock management and veterinary control characteristics similar to most African nations. The exercises and discussions demonstrated how PPPs can create synergies, mutual benefits, and better outcomes in the control of FMD and similar transboundary (FAST) diseases. As participants, we were asked to develop case studies and solutions relevant to our own countries and share experiences with participants from other regions. 

Of particular interest to me, the course provided vital information on how to develop a PPP Framework for the Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Value Chain (FMD VVC) in Eastern Africa – an upcoming goal of the AgResults project. My colleague describes the role of this framework and its potential to strengthen the FMD VVC in a recent blog.

The course’s experiential learning will significantly benefit the AgResults FMD Project team as it develops and validates the PPP Framework in the coming months. We will engage the course participants from Eastern Africa as ‘PPP Champions’, drawing from their perspectives to shape the framework so that it fits the regional context and each country’s unique situation. Since PPP in the veterinary domain is an emerging concept, a standardized framework will be crucial to highlight the opportunities and challenges. It will also serve as a communication tool, sparking awareness of PPPs among stakeholders and attracting investments into the veterinary domain that could ultimately lead to effective and efficient control of FMD in the region.

I was particularly delighted to be in the inaugural group of course participants, and I look forward to further engaging with ‘PPP Champions’ in the region and beyond.

For more information on the FMD Vaccine Challenge Project, visit the project pages on the GALVmed and AgResults websites.

Written by Badi Maulidi

The other side of GALVmed’s Learning Agenda: What is working well without our help?

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GALVmed’s mission focuses on improving the availability and adoption of essential animal health products for Small-scale Livestock Producers (SLPs). In this mission, we focus on the significant constraints imposed by livestock diseases and the considerable barriers in the supply of animal health products (particularly vaccines requiring an effective cold chain) into remote, rural, ‘last mile’ areas.

However, just as important as understanding these constraints and barriers is the need to understand what is already working well in the ‘last mile’. Here, our focus is on the existing availability of animal health products to SLPs without any form of intervention.

We are routinely surprised at how strong this is for some animal health product classes and for some SLP segments. The below table shows the availability of several classes of poultry vaccines in the last mile in Nigeria (from a sample of 6 agrovet retailers with 5 found to have a fridge).

Furthermore, the SLP perception of product quality appears to be good suggesting that vaccine failure is not experienced (suggesting that the cold chain works reasonably well). An example from a 2019 M&E in Nigeria demonstrates this perception:

The above examples are a helpful reminder that product availability and adoption by SLPs is not uniformly bad – and that GALVmed’s work needs to focus on the considerable unmet SLP needs that still exist.

Written by Neil Gammon

Learning from GALVmed’s legacy

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It is standard procedure to measure the progress and effects of a project within its lifetime, or immediately thereafter. However, GALVmed’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) function also considers the performance of projects a few years down the line and the legacy that these projects have left behind. Did they succeed or fail in the long term? Were our underlying assumptions about sustainability correct or incorrect? And, what can we learn from what we have done before?

In 2016, GALVmed M&E assessed the economic sustainability of early GALVmed Market Development projects. We collected data on the supply and demand of Newcastle Disease (ND) vaccines in three pilot project sites five years after these projects ended. Our initial expectation is that we would be carrying out a ‘post-mortem’ looking at learning what might have failed and why in order to incorporate these learnings in future market development work. Instead, we found a remarkable degree of sustainability.

In a similar vein, we have looked backwards at previous market development initiatives such as the Protecting Livestock, Saving Human Life programme (April 2012 – March 2018) to see how work has progressed since the close of the project. Sales data between 2018 and 2019 indicates that millions of doses of ND vaccine were sold to small-scale livestock producers without funds or intervention from GALVmed.

Currently the GALVmed M&E function, in collaboration with partners, are working to model the economic impact of these sales to estimate the ensuing net economic benefit to the communities.

Written by Katharine Tjasink and Stuart Stevenson

GALVmed’s Learning Journey

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GALVmed is privileged to be working on a mission that has truly remarkable potential to improve the livelihoods of a vast number of people. Our ability to achieve exceptional results is down to the exceptional benefits afforded by livestock vaccines and other animal health products. These represent an investment to the small-scale livestock producer that can be matched by very few other agricultural inputs and, with over half the world’s poor being farmers in developing nations, this extraordinary potential can be readily appreciated.

However, despite this potential our mission remains a challenging one. We still have a great deal to learn in the small-scale livestock field and we can still anticipate failure in some of our projects and initiatives. The key to transforming our theoretical potential to tangible reality is learning.

In the GALVmed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) function we are very much part of this GALVmed learning journey. We follow a developmental evaluation approach where pragmatic levels of information are sought to rapidly assess progress and, where necessary, course corrections can be proposed and discussed within GALVmed and with private sector partners. It is our responsibility to serve as the ‘honest broker’ in ensuring a transparent assessment of impact alongside the performance of our initiatives.

We have much to learn and will continue to evolve as iterate as new evidence comes to light, bringing with it new challenges, new lessons, new opportunities and greater understanding.

Written by Neil Gammon

A Step Forward with FMD Public-Private Partnerships in Eastern Africa

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In Eastern Africa, the public sector currently leads efforts to control Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), a highly contagious viral livestock disease with severe economic repercussions. However, private sector innovation and resources could make a big difference in tackling this disease. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the intergovernmental institution responsible for global animal health, asserts that “public-private partnerships (PPP) is a joint approach in which both sectors agree responsibilities and share resources and risks to achieve common objectives that deliver benefits in a sustainable manner.”  If applied properly, such partnerships that leverage public and private resources could dramatically improve animal health in Eastern Africa — but first, we need to raise awareness of the PPP model and its benefits.

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the OIE has recently conducted research across 181 member countries and published a handbook that shows governments and organizations how to develop sustainable and impactful veterinary PPPs. Using the OIE PPP Handbook as a starting point, the AgResults FMD Vaccine Challenge Project aims to catalyze the formation of new PPPs to strengthen the FMD vaccine value chain (VVC) in six target countries: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Managed by GALVmed, the Project is a Pay-for-Results prize competition that encourages the development and uptake of high-quality FMD vaccines tailored to meet the needs of Eastern Africa. The competition uses a cost-share to reduce the cost-per-dose for buyers, enabling public and private sector actors to better combat FMD through more consistent purchases of the new vaccines.

Drawing from the OIE PPP Handbook guidelines, our team will develop a PPP framework that will capture the unique challenges and opportunities for establishing partnerships in the FMD VVC in Eastern Africa, including production, purchasing, distribution, vaccination and post-vaccination monitoring. This framework will form the basis for future development and realization of actual PPP arrangements between public and private sector entities in the region to address the inherent challenges in the FMD VVC.   

A first step is to collaborate with EuFMD and OIE  on an online course they’ve developed, entitled “Applying Public-Private Partnerships to the Control of FMD and Similar Transboundary Diseases”. Public and private sector representatives from our six target countries are participating in this course, along with our Project team. The course is enhancing these representatives’ understanding of the benefits and key factors to create successful and long-lasting FMD control partnerships.

In the coming months, our team will engage course participants and other key stakeholders from the region to discuss the opportunities and barriers to PPP formation in each country. This input will form the basis of the PPP Framework, customised to the unique environments of the Project’s target countries. Once the framework is developed and validated, we will further promote its use as a catalyst for development of successful PPPs, beneficial to the FMD VVC in Eastern Africa.

For more information on the FMD Vaccine Challenge Project, visit the project pages on the GALVmed and AgResults websites.

Written by Nina Henning, the Team Lead of the AgResults FMD Vaccine Challenge Project.

Breaking the cycle of the zoonotic disease Neurocysticercosis

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Much is being discussed about zoonotic diseases currently as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which scientists predict likely emerged from wholesale food market in Wuhan City in China. Globally, it is estimated that 75 per cent of emerging human diseases in the last three decades have originated from animals, increasing the urgency to identify strategies and control tools that will prevent and control zoonotic diseases.

GALVmed has been working on neglected zoonotic diseases that have the most severe constraints on small-scale agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Take the case of Porcine Cysticercosis (PC), which is almost exclusively transmitted between humans and pigs. Porcine Cysticercosis is caused by Taenia solium and humans are the definitive hosts for Taenia solium. People can also act as intermediate hosts and develop human cysticercosis or neurocysticercosis, which can cause severe headaches, blindness, convulsions, epileptic seizures and can be fatal. Taenia solium is the cause of 30% of epilepsy cases in many endemic areas where people and roaming pigs live in close proximity. In high risk communities it can be associated with as many as 70% of epilepsy cases.

Porcine cysticercosis also has a devastating effect on the economy. The farmers incur serious financial losses when their infected pigs cannot be sold, are sold at reduced prices, or are condemned without compensation upon slaughter.

Attempts to control this infection through increased public health education, sanitation, improved animal husbandry and meat inspection, have proven largely unsuccessful in eradication of the disease. Hence, GALVmed and partners set out to develop control tools (vaccine, diagnostics and therapeutics) for porcine cysticercosis in a bid to stop the cycle of infections from pigs to humans.

Since the early 2010s, GALVmed worked with University of Melbourne, Australia, and Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) to develop the TSOL18 vaccine and make it available for use in endemic countries. The CYSVAX™ vaccine for porcine cycticercosis was licensed for the first time in India in 2016.

As part of this collaboration, GALVmed conducted five field trials in smallholder pigs of different regional settings in Asia and Africa to evaluate how the TSOL18 vaccine and the benzimidazole drug Oxfendazole, a pig de-wormer, can be integrated into effective PC control programmes. All studies showed that the TSOL18 vaccine achieves complete elimination of transmission of the parasite by pigs, when concurrently administered with oxfendazole (Paranthic 10%™). This marked a major step towards the integrated control of this important human disease. In addition, GALVmed explored the status of knowledge, attitudes and practices among pig farmers in smallholder settings and farmers’ willingness to pay for Cysvax® and Paranthic 10%™. And while the ‘added value’ of the porcine cysticercosis vaccine will accrue more to the public health sector than the farmer, the concurrent deworming could potentially give economic benefits to farmers through improved pig weight which give the farmers premium prices when selling their pigs. This addresses both the human health and economic aspects of this zoonotic disease.

Written by Beatrice Ouma

Veterinary Services: Improving Accessibility for Smallholder Farmers

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World Veterinary Day provides a great opportunity to celebrate the work of veterinarians and other veterinary service providers around the world. And GALVmed wants to take the opportunity to recognize the contributions of our many veterinary partners for their continued support to our mission of bringing animal health solutions closer to smallholder farmers in developing countries.

As we mark this important day for veterinarians around the world, we also realize that much more work is needed to improve veterinary service provision to smallholder farmers, especially to those in remote, rural communities.

In industrialized countries where livestock production is a commercial business, the veterinary profession is well developed, with public and private veterinary practitioners ensuring disease control, food security, registrations and oversight of distribution and sales of animal health products, safe trade of animals and animal-derived products, production and services to livestock owners. In contrast, many livestock farmers in low-and middle-income countries lack regular access to quality veterinary services. This often leaves farmers with no choice but to self-diagnose, let disease run its course or procure and use veterinary medicines of uncertain origin or quality in unsupervised manner.

Small-scale livestock keepers everywhere recognise the benefits of quality veterinary medicines and advice that veterinary professionals can provide. Africa and South Asia are teeming with young people who could be trained and mentored to provide veterinary care. But a lot needs to be done to make the profession more attractive especially in remote areas, so that young and enterprising veterinarians, certified veterinary paraprofessionals and veterinary health technicians can set up a functioning chain of command linking public and private services in a manner that is efficient and economically viable for all participants.

Finally, I would like to briefly reflect on this year’s theme of environmental protection for improving animal and human health, which could not have been more apt given the global pandemic currently ravaging the world. The outbreak of COVID-19 reminds us why provision of animal health services is increasingly crucial in preventing zoonotic and other infectious diseases and ensuring the global food supply. The health of animals and humans are intrinsically linked. Addressing animal diseases directly improves human health, well-being, and nutrition and is urgently needed everywhere, including in low- and middle-income countries. Now more than ever, GALVmed is determined to play its role within a coordinated global approach among medical, veterinary and other relevant private and public sector players and professionals to prevent disease, human and animal suffering and food scarcity, particularly in the vulnerable southern hemisphere.

This post was written by Carolin Schumacher, Chief Executive, GALVmed

The AgResults Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Challenge Project: Stakeholder Views

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On 22 January 2020, GALVmed and AgResults launched the   AgResults Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Challenge Project,  an eight-year, US$15.8 million prize competition that encourages the development and uptake of high-quality FMD vaccines tailored to meet the needs of Eastern Africa.

The launch, which was held alongside the EuFMD Vaccine Security Meeting at FAO headquarters in Rome, brought together various stakeholders from the animal health industry.

We spoke to representatives from GALVmed, AgResults and several pharmaceutical companies on varying topics – ranging from the impact of FMD to how private vaccine manufacturers can engage with the new project.

This new initiative is funded by AgResults, a collaborative initiative between the governments of Australia, Canada, the UK and the US as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. GALVmed is implementing the project.

Initiative specifics:

Focus on FMD:

Vaccine Manufacturers impressions:

Smallholder farmers: ‘We need a game changer in the fight against Foot and Mouth Disease’

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45-year-old Paul Mathai looks forlornly at his nearly empty cow shed. A few months ago, all the nine paddocks were occupied. Today, only three of his dairy cows are left. And he has no calves left. He lost them to the dreaded Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).

“I first started noticing a lot of saliva in the cows’ mouths and also noticed they were not feeding well and were inactive. That is when I called the veterinarian who diagnosed FMD and initiated treatment. But within a span of two days, I had lost the cows,” says Mr Mathai who hails from Bahati sub-county in Nakuru.

Paul is one of the many farmers currently grappling with an outbreak of FMD in the county. Nakuru has especially been hit hard because there has been a recent influx of livestock from neighbouring counties of Laikipia, Baringo and Narok.

FMD is a viral livestock disease that not only causes mortality but also severely limits livestock productivity and disrupts trade of animals and animal products, leading to huge economic losses.

“Before I lost my animals, I was getting over 50 litres of milk, now, I am lucky to get even 10 litres,” says Mr Mathai.
The loss of his cows has left Mr Mathai contemplating his agricultural venture which he spent a lot of money to set up. According to him, this particular outbreak is unprecedented, particularly to farmers keeping zero-grazed animals.

Francis Muiru, also from Bahati sub-county, is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of his eleven cows. He says in the nearly eight years that he has been rearing dairy cows, he has never witnessed such devastation.

“The calves were hit especially hard. Within a short period of time, they all perished. All my high production cows went down, one after the other. I am not milking any cows now, we have to purchase milk for our own consumption,” says Mr Muiru.

Nakuru county veterinary officers are currently conducting mass vaccination of cattle, swine, sheep and goats. But for some farmers, it may be too late for them as they count their losses. Vaccination remains the most effective method of controlling the disease as treatment is usually more costly. It can cost upwards of Kenyan Shillings 2500 (US $ 25) to treat one cow.

Ruth Silantoi, a smallholder farmer in Nakuru, didn’t lose any cattle during the current outbreak. However, she spent a lot of money treating her six cows who became infected with the viral disease. “I spent a total of Kenyan Shillings 15,000 (US $ 148) to treat my six cows. This has really put a big dent on our household income,” noted Ms Silantoi.

Farmers continue to express the need for more vaccine options so that they are able to purchase the vaccine and actively prevent rather than treat the disease. As was voiced by one farmer, “I have spent so much money to buy my improved dairy cattle, if there was a vaccine I could reliably purchase to protect my animals from FMD, I would not hesitate. I would not want my cattle to go through this again, we need more options to fight this disease.”

In responding to this gap, the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) is implementing a new project that seeks to increase the supply of FMD vaccine through augmenting the government supply with a private sector model for buying and distributing vaccines. The AgResults Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Challenge Project will expand the FMD vaccine offering by encouraging pharmaceutical companies around the world to develop, register, and commercialise improved FMD vaccines in Eastern Africa – specifically in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia. This will enable farmers to have more options for accessing the vaccine and be more active in the control of the disease by vaccinating more regularly even when there is no outbreak.

Written by Beatrice Ouma, Senior Communications Manager, GALVmed