By: Samuel Adediran, Assistant Director for Global Access, GALVmed

With aggregate estimated population comprising 300m cattle, 1.8b chickens, 35m pigs and 650m sheep and goats, livestock production in Africa is important to the livelihood of millions of people in Africa (FAO Statistics 2013).  Animal disease is one of the major constraints of production. Hence animal health service delivery is very critical because of the relative shortage of (qualified) veterinary surgeons, predominantly extensive production systems, the sheer size and distribution of the rural areas, weak infrastructure, poor logistics, limited access to inputs and markets, low awareness and the consequential lack of oversight or supervision. Under this condition, the role of veterinary para professionals, including in some countries community-based animal health workers becomes paramount. The use of community-based animal health workers(or CAHWs) has been widely experimented in Africa, in situations of peacetime, and in areas of conflict e.g. Somalia, South Sudan, Karamoja region of Uganda, Mali, etc.

Defining vet para-professionals

The Veterinary Para-Professional (VPP), according to the glossary of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Terrestrial Code “is a person who, is authorised by the veterinary statutory body of a country, to carry out certain designated tasks in a territory, delegated to them under the responsibility and direction of a veterinarian.”

Different categories of veterinary service providers therefore come under the classification of VPP. The role for each category of veterinary para-professional should be clearly defined, according to need by the veterinary statutory body depending on the qualifications, training, category or the para-professional. However, the registration, recognition and incorporation of the services of veterinary para-professionals, including CBAHW vary between countries. According to an OIE report, some countries mainly in Africa do include “community-based animal health workers” as being part of the veterinary-paraprofessionals and register them as part of the veterinary workforce while others do not. In addition there are discrepancies between countries in the classification, training curriculum, scope of practice and the level of supervision of VPP’s. In order to bridge this gap and promote linkage between veterinary surgeons and VPPs, the OIE in partnership with the Africa Veterinary Technicians Association (AVTA) and the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) is organising the first Para-professional conference which will be held October 13 – 15, 2015, at the St Georges Hotel, Irene, Pretoria (Gauteng Province), South Africa.

Integrated participation

Nearly 100 participants including representatives of OIE, GALVmed, Au-IBAR, African Veterinary Technicians Association (AVTA), South African Association for Veterinary Para Professionals (SAAVPP) will participate. The conference will bring together a limited number of national associations of VPPs, representatives of well-functioning and OIE compliant Veterinary Statutory Bodies in Africa, Directors of Veterinary Services, and advocates of improved veterinary services together. Other stakeholder institutions including the AU-IBAR, FAO-ECTAD, international livestock organisations, and regional economic commissions in Africathat have demonstrated great interest in the subject of animal health service delivery. In addition, to organisations involved in livestock services such as the Vétérinaires sans Frontières and NGOs involved in livestock support services will be represented. Representatives from outside Africa will share experiences in the evolution of CAHW in Asia.

Set Objectives

The conference will promote linkage between professional veterinarians and veterinary para professionals while providing forum to address various OIE topics that are relevant to VPP including the fact that their operations are implemented under the supervision of veterinarians, whether private or public, as indicated in the OIE standards. The conference programme will also include contributions on the use of CAHWs in remote or conflict areas, where “regular” veterinary services are either not available or have been disrupted, although the main focus will be promoting normal interaction between vets, VPPs and (trained) farmers, i.e. as CAHWs.  In addition, the conference is expected to provide guidelines for the operationalisation of VPP associations while proposing modalities for the recognition, registration and standardisation of the training module and classification of veterinary para-professionals.

By: Dr Mamta Dhawan, GALVmed Regional Manager: South Asia

Thirty years ago I lost an uncle to rabies. His pet dog was not vaccinated against rabies and he licked a scratch on my uncle’s knee leading to a very painful death. Just five years back, in a rural area, a farmer was attacked by a rabid dog while working in his fields. He did not seek appropriate treatment due to lack of awareness and died soon after.  This was not registered as a death due to rabies because he did not go to a hospital. Rabies, once contracted, cannot be cured and results in death. In India, there are 20,000 people dying of rabies every year. This is 36% of the total human rabies deaths worldwide! Has nothing changed in India in these 30 years?

In spite of this, no national programme on rabies has been announced.  Rabies control is slightly complex in India as it involves both humans and animals – mostly stray dogs. In India, dogs are most often the carrier while the disease manifests in humans as well as other mammals. Post-bite anti -rabies treatment, including vaccinations for humans, are provided free of charge in public hospitals.

For any rabies control programme, multi-sector collaboration would be needed. This would include Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, municipal corporations in the cities and, of course, civil society organisations for last mile delivery of services. In India, the large stray dog population often carries rabies but nothing is done to address this health and safety concern! Until this issue is addressed, rabies cannot be controlled effectively!

The best option is to vaccinate the dogs. This is easier said than done! Trained dog catchers are difficult to find as it is not a profession of choice for people. There are also few vaccinators and the number of dogs that need to be caught to be vaccinated is huge. Moreover, even if one manages to vaccinate dogs in an area, the rate at which they breed (every six months a litter is produced) will create a strain on vaccinators. Therefore, when dogs are vaccinated against rabies, they should also be neutered or spayed as the case may be. This means that there is a need for trained vets and the resources to fund this programme. While funds for the human side of rabies control are forthcoming, no one is ready to foot the bill for curtailing the dog population or vaccinating them!

A comprehensive policy on rabies control in India should cover:

a) Provision for post-bite treatment to humans

b) Vaccination of stray dogs

c) Control of dog population through spaying and neutering

d) Mass rabies awareness programme and

e) Provision for resources to do the above.

This blog post is written in support of World Rabies Day on 28th September 2015. This year’s theme is Ending Rabies Together. The Global Alliance for Rabies Control are holding worldwide events to raise awareness and to promote prevention activities in at-risk communities. To find out more about the day, follow #EndRabies on Twitter and join the conversation.

By: Samuel Adediran, Assistant Director of Global Access

Malawi is one of the countries that is most affected by erratic climatic conditions and animal disease outbreaks, which have a critical negative impact on rural families. Village chicken production is very important to households and livelihoods in rural Malawi. It constitutes a major productive asset, an important form of saving resources and a precious source of protein for rural households’ diet.

Newcastle Disease (ND) is the major constraint to traditional village chicken production in Malawi like in most African and Asian countries. Up to 90% of village flocks are lost annually in affected flocks. Traditional poultry keepers lose millions of Malawian Kwacha (the national currency) annually through preventable animal diseases. Indeed over time, villagers have accepted their annual loss of chickens as inevitable acts of fate. This is where GALVmed and partners come in; to try and change this notion by saving their poultry through vaccinations thus improving the livelihoods of these traditional poultry keepers.

Newcastle disease vaccines have been available to commercial chicken producers but these are packed in large dose sizes to cater for between 500-1,000 chickens. This arrangement is not suitable for backyard poultry keepers probably with five to ten chickens. In addition, lack of awareness, lack of access to suitable agrovet shops, limited and poor access to roads and lack of electricity in rural areas to maintain a cold chain have contributed to inaccessibility of effective ND vaccines. The development of the small packaged, easy to use, thermo-tolerant strain I-2 ND vaccine has brought new hope to traditional village chicken producers in Malawi. Such vaccines can be transported to remote locations in ventilated basket and thermos coolers. The vaccine is also packed in smaller doses that can be used for two to ten households within a five to eight hour window compared with two to three hours for the conventional ND vaccine.

GALVmed is supporting a local NGO, Inter Aide, to increase the use of this ND vaccine in the Lilongwe, Zomba and Phalombe districts of the central region of Malawi. The partnership will promote the availability of this effective solution against Newcastle disease and will train 100 additional vaccinators, which will generate employment for youths in rural areas. Nearly one million doses of ND vaccine will be administered to about 330,000 chickens every three months. The greatest beneficiaries are rural women, who can get disposable income from the traditional chickens, to benefit themselves and their children. It is anticipated that following vaccination and chick protection against predators, more chickens will survive over a period of six months and chicken and egg production will increase creating improved nutrition and income to households in the districts.

Inter Aide is a French organisation devoted to the implementation of programmes that promote resource access for the most vulnerable communities in developing countries. By promoting activities in different fields such as agriculture, water, sanitation, community health and education, Inter Aide’s main objective is to reinforce the capacities of vulnerable populations to improve living conditions in their communities. The general objective of our project with Inter Aide is to reduce disease from the Newcastle virus in the village poultry sector by setting up sustainable vaccine delivery systems in the central region of Malawi, provide affordable ND vaccines to traditional poultry producers and to secure the livelihood of 30,000 families through increased poultry production. In the long term, the partnership will enable Inter Aide to expand ND vaccination activities to new areas and open distribution outlets, which will facilitate improved access to extension and animal health services.

By: Rose Peter, Programme Manager: Animal African Trypanosomosis

In recent weeks I have attended a couple of conferences where tryps have been on the agenda.  One was in Liverpool, England (World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP)) and  very much focused on research both of new drugs for old parasites and field studies. Attendees were from 65 countries. We at GALVmed presented two posters, one on the development of new therapeutic trypanocides and one on the quality control of trypanocides  that has been facilitated by GALVmed at two laboratories in Africa (LACOMEV in Senegal and the TFDA in Tanzania). Both posters were well accepted and there were some lively discussions specifically in regards to the development of a therapeutic trypanocide with some interested commercial parties.

This week, I find myself in Ndjamema, Chad for the 33rd General Conference of the International Scientific Council for Trypanosomosis Research and Control (ISTRC) and the 14th Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) Coordinators Meeting. Some members of our Animal African Trypanosomosis (Tryps) steering committee as well as a number of our collaborators are here. A true Tryps and tsetse fest – it is good to find out what is happening currently in those countries that are so severely affected by this scourge.

Later in the week there will be a number of presentations on some of the work that GALVmed is currently involved in. Already there is interest with discussions with a number of government ministers in regards to the need for new effective drugs, not only for cattle but camels.

For more information on our Tryps project read “Seeking the Next Generation of Livestock Trypanocides”.

In rural India and Nepal, opportunities for women to contribute to household income are scarce. However, one asset most women do have access to is backyard poultry. Families typically keep five to ten chickens, which scavenge for scraps and insects and provide a boost to household diets or income, through the sale and consumption of eggs and meat. Expanding or intensifying informal livestock rearing activities such as backyard poultry rearing is frequently advocated as a way out of poverty for rural families. But to achieve that goal, households in India and Nepal first need an affordable way to protect their birds from a widespread and highly contagious killer – Newcastle Disease (ND).

According to Peetambar Kushwaha of the Global Alliance for Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), ND is the biggest challenge for backyard poultry production in rural and peri-urban areas, killing 80-90% of backyard chickens every year when outbreaks of the highly pathogenic strain occur. Vaccines against the disease have been available from urban veterinary stockists for many years, but are manufactured and sold in doses to meet the needs of large broiler and layer farms with thousands of birds. The vaccines are therefore beyond the reach of the backyard poultry keeper, both geographically and financially, and government campaigns for village-level vaccination, often erratic, have rarely provided adequate protection.

Appropriate and effective vaccination

GALVmed’s approach to tackling the problem involves a dual approach: a partnership with India-based vaccine manufacturer, Hester Biosciences Limited, enables the production and commercial distribution of a thermo-tolerant (i.e. heat tolerant) ND vaccine. This is important in order for the vaccine to be suitable for use in remote rural areas where transport is slow and electricity supplies are scarce and interrupted. A second feature was the production and distribution of the thermo-tolerant vaccine in much smaller doses more appropriate for the number of birds kept by backyard poultry keepers.

Supporting the development of an appropriate vaccine for backyard poultry has been key to GALVmed’s approach in tackling the problem. Apart from the issue of dose size, there was also a second priority in developing a vaccine that can be kept under a certain temperature, for a period of time without refrigeration (thermo-tolerant). This was important in order for the vaccine to be suitable for use in remote rural areas where transport is slow and electricity supplies are scarce and interrupted. A partnership with India-based vaccine manufacturer, Hester Biosciences Limited, enables the production and commercial distribution of a thermo-tolerant (i.e heat tolerant) ND vaccine, which is made available in much smaller doses, such as for 100 birds.

Ensuring widespread use of the vaccine is the next part of GALVmed’s strategy. Three pilot projects, completed in 2012, proved highly successful in setting up a sustainable business model for vaccination. Rural vaccinators are recruited and trained, and are able to obtain the vaccine from local veterinary drug retailers who, informed by the project, are usually quick to appreciate the business case for stocking it. This approach is now being scaled up to serve around 300,000 farming households in six districts of Nepal and four districts in two Indian states. Over the next two and a half years, around 5 million households in three states of India will be covered through a much larger upscaling project.

In Nepal and India, an intense two years of work has seen vaccinators recruited and trained, the vaccine supply system set up and up to four rounds of vaccination completed in some areas. Two GALVmed partner organisations, Heifer International and Helen Keller International, have been responsible for the field-level implementation in Nepal. They report good results, both in terms of poultry health and the satisfaction of farmers and vaccinators with the system.

Fattepur village, on the outskirts of the city of Nepalgunj in south-western Nepal, is one site being targeted for ND control. The village is close to a forest area and has a high proportion of indigenous and marginalised people living on very low incomes. Heifer Nepal, having been working to support holistic community development in Fattepur, partnered with GALVmed to introduce ND vaccination for backyard poultry. Members of the Sayapatri women’s self-help group, for example, have been trained in housing, feeding and sanitation for poultry, and have had their birds vaccinated by a local animal health worker, trained by the NGO. A nearby ‘agrovet’ has begun to stock the vaccine, and both ND vaccination and treatment for internal parasites are now regular practices in the village. As a result, the average number of birds owned per household has increased by 3.8 times (from 5.4 to 21), and egg production over the year has increased fivefold. Average yearly earnings from sales of eggs and birds have risen from around US$48 to nearly $180 per household. This is also significant in increasing the status of the women within their families and communities.

A profitable, sustainable model

Key to the success of the system is that it makes financial sense for the vaccinators. During the pilot phase, GALVmed found that an animal health worker needed to earn INR 5000 ($80) per month from vaccinations and other services for their business to succeed. If too many people are trained in one area, individual vaccinators are unable to earn enough money and give up. When setting up new vaccination projects, partners are therefore asked to consider factors such as the size of the target area, the number of birds and how far a vaccinator can travel in a day, in order to gauge potential earnings.

When asked about challenges, Kushwaha is more concerned about the commitment of villagers than vaccinators. “Initially, farmers are very enthusiastic about getting their birds vaccinated because their birds are dying,” he says. “But after five or six months, if they don’t see the disease, they become reluctant to vaccinate again. And if they don’t, the disease returns.” As a result, a major component of the ND control programme is to convince poultry keepers to vaccinate their birds regularly – ideally once every three months – or risk losing them. Video documentaries to help raise awareness have been produced in three languages and are shown in villages using portable video systems. These are backed up by discussion sessions, posters including murals and, in some parts of Nepal, FM radio.

GALVmed’s long-term aim is to establish a sustainable system for vaccination, based on three elements: a steady supply of vaccine in appropriate dosages and quality; a cadre of vaccinators who are trained to carry out regular rounds of vaccination; and a farming population that understands the need for regular vaccination. “Once we get that done,” says Kushwaha, “the system will run itself on a business model. Vaccine producers and retailers can make money from increased sales. Vaccinators can make money from their work, and farmers can make money from their birds.”

Written by Mike Davison, WRENmedia

Produced by WRENmedia

In Kaptipada village of Mayurbhanj District in Orissa, India lives a hardworking couple. Dashrathi and Fulomani Murmu have dedicated their lives to serving their community by taking care of their livestock. Dashrathi is mainly known within the community as the small animals’ doctor, while Fulomani is the village poultry doctor. Both are trained vaccinators.

The couple’s services are filling a huge gap left by the lack of veterinary service in their community. For a long time, no trained vaccinator has catered to the needs of small ruminants and poultry in their community as the only government employed livestock inspector was vaccinating large animals only. And yet, most families within the community keep small animals and poultry as a source of livelihood.

The couple became vaccinators by chance when GALVmed, in partnership with a local NGO, Bhodal Milk Producers Cooperative Society (BMPCS) introduced a training programme for vaccinators in the control of Newcastle Disease. Fulomani, who was then a member of a self-help group in the village, was invited to the training by Piyush Mishra who runs another local NGO in the area.   While attending the training, Fulomani who had an infant baby was often accompanied by her husband Dashrathi who would take care of the baby while training was in session. The trainer, Dr. Kornel Das spotted Dashrathi’s keen interest in the training course and asked him to join the group.

After completing the training course, the couple went back to serve their community. Initially this was not easy, but after earning the trust of the community members especially when chickens stopped dying, their services become very popular and in demand. These days, they are often called upon by the government’s veterinary department to carry out vaccinations of livestock during scheduled campaigns.

Since starting their vaccination business three years ago, the couple has played a big role in controlling outbreaks of Newcastle Disease in Mayurbhanj district where they serve about 900 families in seven villages. Their work has had a significant impact on the community. Families who used to keep between six and eight chickens are now able to keep between thirty to forty chickens because of vaccinations. This has a multiplier effect in the overall outlook of their lives as their earnings from poultry increase.

On the other hand, the couple has also been able to build a successful business.   From their modest coolers, which they transport using their newly purchased bicycle, they stock a limited supply of the Newcastle Disease vaccine, anthelmintic and some first aid medicines that they can supply to other vaccinators. In total, they earn a monthly income of about 10,000 Indian Rupees (US $158) . With the extra income generated, they have recently started a chick rearing centre and are planning to purchase day old chicks from a nearby government hatchery to rear them for a month before selling them off to villagers for crossbreeding with their village poultry.

Reflecting on their successful venture Fulomani says that it has improved their lives tremendously. “When our child was recently sick with malaria, we were able to pay the 24,000 Indian Rupees (US $380) required by the hospital for treatment, something that we could not afford before we started,” she says.

The couple are grateful for the training they received and are very optimistic about their future. They plan to expand their services to other communities and have plans of buying a motorcycle to do this.  They would like to educate their seven children to become doctors or engineers.

Four young guys in a remote Dasokhao village of Ramgadh district near Ranchi were thinking of starting an enterprise with only a small initial investment. They came to know and interact with villagers in the area who have recently started vaccinating their backyard poultry (BYP). A local NGO named SUPPORT with the help of GALVmed is working in the area to establish a system of regular vaccination in BYP against Newcastle Disease (ND). Villagers are also trained to improve poultry housing and nutrition as well as the importance of regular vaccination of their local birds. This has resulted in less mortality and an increasing number of birds in the area.

These four young guys soon realised the potential income that can be generated from backyard poultry keeping. They noticed that nearby national highway restaurants sell local chickens at three times the higher price than broiler chickens. They were considering this new enterprise when a big backyard poultry event was held in the area. GALVmed and its partners from Africa and South Asia gathered in Ranchi in March 2015 to discuss backyard poultry and the control of ND. The delegates also visited some villages in the area including the one the young entrepreneurs were visiting while researching backyard poultry keeping. They decided to start backyard poultry keeping in an intensive system. They have built a house and are keeping many birds inside while providing feed and limited time grazing outside.

They also included a vaccinator, who has recently been trained by SUPPORT, the local NGO, on ND vaccination and other management of backyard poultry, into their team. They built a concrete poultry house surrounded by open area to graze their poultry, and they purchased 70 backyard poultry from the nearby village and started rearing them in the newly built house.

It is common in this area for tribal and non-tribal households to keep backyard poultry. They need chicken for when guests visit. Serving chicken to a guest for dinner or lunch is a matter of pride and honour for the villagers. They are currently unable to fulfil their household demand of local chicken. However, the recent ND vaccination programme has seeded some hope in villagers that bird numbers will increase. Starting a backyard poultry business is a reflection of their hope and faith that backyard poultry keeping can be a lucrative enterprise.

But they will have to find answers to some of the following questions to run this enterprise in a sustainable way.

• Will this business be competitively cost effective if compared with broiler or layer farming?
• Will this market and price sustain if many villagers will start similar enterprises?

The rate at which local birds convert feed into meat and egg is slow in comparison to broiler and layer. Now there is a demand for backyard poultry and it is being sold at a higher price in the local market. They will have to find the answers to these questions through time and practice. For now they can rear local birds earn more and learn more over time.

It’s raining heavily when we reach Vincent Taracha’s home in the industrial town of Webuye in western Kenya. For decades, life in Webuye was defined by a paper mill industry called the Pan African Paper Mills. Locals and migrants, young and old, depended on it, working in the various sections of the huge factory that now sits forlornly on the hills of Webuye. For life has since ebbed out of the once vibrant paper mill when it finally closed its steel gates in 2008, taking with it hopes and dreams. And life has never been the same for the men and women of Webuye. The tales are as depressing as they can get; many have despaired, turning to locally brewed alcohol to while away the long empty days ahead, marriages have been broken, some children are no longer regularly attending school and its endless really. But while others chose to dwell in the void that has been left by the factory, Vincent took a different path. He turned to the next best thing he knew how to do: raising local chickens and selling them off at the nearest market to stay afloat.  He shows us around his backyard where he keeps his flock of 30 chickens with immeasurable pride. “These are my source of livelihood, and I take very good care of them, because my family depends on them,” he says.

Vincent started keeping the chickens back in 2012 after waiting in vain for the factory to reopen its doors. He started with a modest eleven chickens. Back then he did not know how to properly take care of the chickens and so he let them roam freely within the compound and into the neighbourhood. “They were not very healthy, they got sick all the time, some died,” he says. So he went to the nearest agrovet shop and bought countless medicines which did not work. Until he attended a training where someone advised him to vaccinate the chickens. Back then, the vaccine he relied on was given to him in a syringe, pre-diluted.  It was never sealed. And because of frequent power blackouts in the area, the vaccines could not be trusted either because the agrovet owner had to sell all the available stock before he could reorder a new batch, even if they were compromised.  Until the I-2 thermotolerant Newcastle Disease vaccine was introduced and Vincent, together with other backyard poultry keepers was given small cooler boxes to store the vaccine for a limited period of time. But it made all the difference.

The vaccine protects the chickens against the Newcastle Disease which has a 100% mortality rate. This particular vaccine addresses the problem of cold chain as it can be kept at a certain temperature for a certain period without requiring refrigeration.

By 2013, Vincent’s flock had increased to 40 and he took advantage of the high prices to sell off some of his chickens at 1,000 Kshs (12 US$) each. He bought a heifer with the proceeds from the sales. The cow is now pregnant and Vincent cannot wait to start milking! But Vincent is not looking back as far as his backyard poultry business is concerned, he takes care of the chickens like they were his own children, he vaccinates every three months and he keeps a record of the vaccinations. He would like to increase his herd of cows and he sees the chickens playing a significant part in this plan. He can only keep 40 chickens at a time, his chicken coop is not very big and he likes to be able to manage them effectively. He takes one last look before we leave, “they are my roost, my source of income, and this vaccine has made the difference between life and death for them,” he concludes.

 

GALVmed is working with manufacturers and distributors to provide the thermotolerant I-2 Newcastle Disease vaccine so that backyard poultry keepers like Vincent can continue to nurture their dreams and sustain their livelihoods.