Written by: Stuart Brown, Assistant Director of Business Development at GALVmed

Joy is a tough thing to bottle.  To me, this photo, taken by my friend and colleague Dr Victor Mbao goes some way to encapsulating it.  It shows the first moments in which liquid nitrogen was produced at a small laboratory in Lilongwe, Malawi – CTTBD, a lab which is having its official launch today.

“It was like a miracle to see the first spurts and coughs of liquid nitrogen at the end of a pipe going into one of our containers.”,  Victor recalls.   “The joy in members of staff was palpable.  I knew this was the beginning of the journey to reducing the cost of production and delivery of CTTBD’s core product – ECF vaccine.  Before then, nitrogen used to be shipped in from Zambia at great cost and inconvenience.”

The nitrogen is needed to store the vaccine and as CTTBD’s Acting Director, Dr Nkhwachi Gondwe-Mphepo shares, its arrival meant “…immense relief! No more sleepless nights as to when and where to get liquid nitrogen.”  Nkhwachi smiles: “I felt like jumping up and down for joy!  Like the rest of the CTTBD staff, I could not believe the problem of liquid nitrogen was now in the archives.”

It matters so much because the one-shot-for life vaccine protects cattle against ECF.  This is a disease that kills or reduces the productivity of millions of cattle across many African countries, impacting the lives of individuals, families and communities that rely on their livestock for the basics and to fuel their initiatives, enterprises and dreams.

Pictured here wearing a protective glove (the liquid Nitrogen being more than 300 times colder than a household freezer), QA Technician, Mr Kennedy Senzamanja said “That’s one small step for the CTTBD liquid nitrogen plant, one giant leap for the African ECF region!”  To my (non-technical) mind, the development of vaccines is rocket science.  The Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and its forerunner, the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) researched, developed and produced this Muguga cocktail ECF ITM vaccine.  Many African and international organisations have been part of the vaccine’s story with the baton now passed to the team in CTTBD.

Kennedy’s analogy is also borne out by the personal stories I’ve been told in sub-Saharan Africa by livestock keepers of ways in which the vaccine has transformed their lives.  They speak of their cattle surviving, the size of their herds growing, an increase in income enabling them to pay for education and healthcare. Pastoralists point to very costly dams built on the proceeds of their cattle to prepare for times of drought, to dispensaries, vehicles and children being put through school and some to university.

Joy is a tough thing to bottle, but in the hands of everyone striving to make, distribute and deliver this vaccine, it is a cocktail that also includes big measures of hope, choice and dignity for millions of people.

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Follow CTTBD’s launch on Friday 5th December. Use the Twitter hashtag #cttbdmalawi to find out more before, during and after the event!

The Centre for Ticks and Tick Borne Disease (CTTBD) in Malawi is now successfully producing the first batch of East Coast fever (ECF) vaccine, also known as the Muguga Cocktail. Because of this, there is now greater opportunity that exists for more effective control of this ravaging livestock disease in the “warm heart of Africa” and other countries in which ECF is endemic. The vaccine as such is not new, but its successful production at an African Union (AU) institution in Malawi is a milestone to be acknowledged and celebrated. Apart from the technical complexity of production, there were many other institutional barriers that GALVmed and other partners have been addressing to make this production a reality.  Thus, the launching of the vaccine is a milestone – a bridge crossed. But now there are other bridges to be crossed in order to make this vaccine accessible to poor livestock producers. One of these is marketing and distribution of the vaccine to those who need it.

When writing about the challenges of access to animal health products for poor livestock producers in Malawi based on a scoping study, I observed that 90% of livestock in Malawi is in the small-holder systems based in remote villages and locations with poor access to infrastructures and without access to cold chain facilities. In addition, these farmers are poorly organised and lack access to organised markets and sufficient awareness of information and training in animal health practices that could transform their practices into income-generating ventures. Most of them have solely continued keeping livestock as a means of food for their households rather than to also generate money.

In order to take full advantage of the availability of the ECF vaccine, it is necessary to mobilise all resources to promote improved access to markets and information. The challenges to achieve this are not trivial. The technical issues around vaccine pack size and cost of goods are being addressed by relevant institutions. For too long stakeholders who have aimed to provide services to small-scale producers have been working in an uncoordinated and disjointed manner, thus duplicating efforts and wasting scarce resources.

The African lesson of strength in unity of purpose should now be invoked again particularly in the animal health and agriculture sectors. This will require more focussed efforts in public-private partnership. Governments, scientific think-tanks and private business innovators should work together to develop strategies that promote access to animal health solutions for people for whom livestock is a lifeline. The results will be improved vaccine production practices, improved access to high quality nutrition and improved child and maternal health. These outcomes will contribute to the attainment of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of the chronically malnourished and hungry by 2015, while also improving livestock productivity. It will be then the CTTBD-produced ECF vaccine and other animal health products will have truly impacted African society. I look forward to celebrating this milestone.

Written by: Samuel Adediran, Assistant Director of Market Development and Access at GALVmed

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Follow CTTBD’s launch on Friday 5th December. Use the Twitter hashtag #cttbdmalawi to find out more before, during and after the event!

The Centre will be the sole producer of the ‘one shot for life’ East Coast fever Muguga cocktail ITM vaccine that will help protect 25 million cattle across eleven African countries.  

Written by: Dr Hameed Nuru, Senior Director of Policy and External Affairs at GALVmed

Since 2008, GALVmed has taken on the daunting challenge of trying to facilitate the control of East Coast Fever (ECF) in Eastern Africa. I joined GALVmed in 2009 with a burning desire to see that challenge through to fruition and to show that things can be done, and done well, in the African livestock sector.

In 2009, and for three decades before that, ECF was not only an economic disease, but also a very political disease with actors all working independently and against each other. This resulted in a relatively simple disease not being controlled effectively and livestock keepers – poor and affluent alike – facing the wrath of an easily controllable disease. ECF actually has three methods of control (unlike most livestock diseases):

1. Prevent the tick with dip solutions (Acaricides)

2. Treat affected animals once sick with drugs

3. Vaccinate using the Muguga cocktail ECF ITM vaccine.

GALVmed opted to go for the vaccination approach because, as we all know, vaccination is far more effective and prevention is better than cure.

A lot of things had to be put in place to ensure that vaccination was to stand out as a preferred method of control. Over the years, GALVmed has:

–          Engaged with partners and stakeholders at all levels from research to farmers

–          Prepared a comprehensive dossier used for vaccination registration with regulatory authorities (the vaccine has been registered for the first time in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania– conditional in Uganda)

–          Facilitated the formation and support to the ECF regional task force

–          Paved the way for distributors to be officially recognised and accredited by governments

–          Assisted in the training of dozens of vaccinators in East Africa

–          Significantly played a role in refurbishing, training and equipping the CTTBD from scratch to the point at which now the vaccine is being produced at a commercial level under quality assured production standards

It has been a very long and tumultuous road, but finally the circle has become full, with the launch of the newly refurbished, ready-to-go, state-of-the-art CTTBD Malawi.

I am so glad GALVmed and I had a role in this.

Follow CTTBD’s launch on Friday 5th December. Use the Twitter hashtag #cttbdmalawi to find out more before, during and after the event!

By: Abdallah Said Twahir, Director of Market Development and Access at GALVmed

The Centre for Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases, or just CTTBD as it is better known, is in the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. It produces a unique vaccine against a killer livestock disease responsible for large numbers of deaths in cattle. East Cost Fever (ECF or Ndigana as it is known in parts of Kenya and Tanzania) is responsible for over 1 million cattle deaths a year with considerable consequences on livestock keepers’ livelihoods.

However, a solution is available. A vaccine referred to as the ECF-ITM involves infecting an animal with disease-causing organisms and then treating the animal with a long-acting antibiotic to produce lifelong immunity.

It takes over 18 months to produce the vaccine at a considerable cost. The vaccine is expensive BUT not as expensive as the cost and effects of loss of livelihoods to the livestock keeper.

For many people in Africa, livestock is a measure of wealth and a significant source of food through milk and meat. It is time for the livestock keeper in Africa to take control of their destinies and their own livelihoods. Often, the livestock keeper leaves the responsibility of vaccinations to the government. Yet when the pastoralist is out and about in search of pasture, he constructs a boma, a ring of thorny bushes to protect livestock against predators (lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas). They don’t leave that to the government. It is this change in mind set that is required to move forward to a brighter future. A future of many possibilities. A future of wealth and health. CTTBD is the partner to that future.

And before you ask, it is NOT time to duplicate this kind of facility all over Africa. It is time to consolidate our resources for efficiency and effectiveness. It is time to support the CTTBD for the sake of all livestock keepers in Africa.