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 […]
Our professional lives are often so cramped with problems to solve, targets to reach and deadlines to meet that we may find it difficult to think. However, it is when we stop and make time to think that we increase the possibility to gain insights that will “move the needle”. At a recent “Private Sector […]
In July 2018, GALVmed’s partner Boehringer Ingelheim launched a new project known as The Last Mile Initiative. The project is designed to address weak distribution channels and help smallholder farmers in Africa increase their knowledge on disease prevention and treatment. While the Last Mile Initiative was initially launched in Kenya, there are plans to expand […]
In a new article posted on his Gates Notes blog, Bill Gates says rearing goats can greatly boost women’s empowerment, especially in rural areas where money earned from sale of goats stays in the women’s hands and gives them more control of their finances. This means that women not only improve their status within the […]
Millions of people around the world rely on small-scale agriculture and livestock farming for their livelihoods. For these families, livestock are assets which translate into vital essentials such as food, housing, education, or health assistance. Within this reality, outbreaks of livestock diseases can be detrimental to the livelihoods of these producers. We travelled to […]
African animal trypanosomiasis (AAT) is a disease of vertebrate animals caused by a blood‑dwelling protozoan parasite which is spread by biting tsetse flies. AAT is widely known in Africa as nagana and is a major constraint for livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa. Each year, AAT is estimated to kill 3 million cattle. The direct economic […]
On the back of the One Health Congress which was held recently from October 30 to November 3 2020, Supporting Evidence-based Interventions (SEBI) hosted a One Health virtual chat to discuss the importance of data to drive decision-making and intervention planning, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). The One Health chat was hosted by […]
The use of technology has permeated into many professional facets including in the provision of services to rural communities in the developing world. Increasingly, as we become a culture that is connected to everyone and everything and ubiquitously online, every business is finding ways of connecting to their customers and small-scale livestock producers are no […]
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito. African proverb. Nearly 600 million of the world’s poorest households raise animals as an essential source of income (FAO). Their domestic economy depends on the animals they raise and, access to quality medicines and veterinary […]
According to FAO, livestock related food items account for about 30% of agriculture related GDP in Africa. This is with the exclusion of other contributions such as manure, draught power and transportation. When we consider that 75% of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) human population is involved either directly or indirectly in farming activities (FAO 2013;2014), it […]
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) defines biosecurity as a set of management and physical measures designed to reduce the risk of introduction, establishment and spread of animal diseases, infections or infestations to, from and within an animal population. The growing importance of poultry in developing countries and the emergence of new zoonotic pathogens, […]
Majority of the animal production in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is scattered. They have traditionally been operated by millions of small-scale producers (SSPs). The number of animals kept by SSPs are few – ranging from one to hundreds. Many of these animals die due to preventable infectious diseases before attaining maturity and those entering […]
Q: To what extent is animal health the pre-eminent constraint to small-scale livestock producers?A: To a large extent To many of us, “to a large extent” may seem a satisfactory answer. But what does it mean? How do we respond to this kind of data and what are the implications for the work we do […]
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 […]