Tag: hatchery

Celebrating 2 years of achievements with PREVENT

Posted on by team galvmed

Poultry is an affordable and accessible asset for small-scale producers in Africa, but the effectiveness of vaccination has been limited and rural producers can have their flocks wiped out overnight due to preventable diseases.

PREVENT was launched in April 2021 as an initiative to establish an innovative and pragmatic veterinary health approach in Africa through medium-size hatchery vaccination. PREVENT comprises various workstreams and operations that are connecting the key pieces to achieve this endgame, and in this blog, we explore some of our achievements so far.

  • Hatchery vaccination: The initiative aims to equip 36 mid-size African hatcheries with the necessary equipment and expertise (vaccination techniques, maintenance, hatchery biosecurity practice, quality assurance, and vaccination monitoring) so that the hatcheries will be able to provide customers with large numbers of chicks vaccinated against the major infectious poultry diseases. Farmers and poultry producers buying these vaccinated chicks will have better chances at ensuring flock health, reducing risk of bird losses, securing income, and overall, running more successful businesses. PREVENT has launched activities in 8 countries (Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe) and onboarded 24 hatcheries so far. This has allowed the initiative to administer 109 million doses of vaccines to 37 million day-old chicks (an average of 3 vaccine doses per chick). Diseases against which the chicks are vaccinated include Infectious bursal disease, Newcastle disease, Infectious bronchitis, and Marek’s disease.
  • Training and market development: Vaccination alone is not enough, and the lack of technical support and information about circulating infectious diseases is also a major constraint. To date, PREVENT has trained 100 Field Technicians in Tanzania, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Ethiopia to provide advice and technical support to small-scale poultry keepers. In serving as the link between the hatcheries and the poultry farmers, the field technicians will also foster demand for, and create markets for vaccinated day-old chicks. Since activities started in September 2022, these field technicians have visited 1,800 farms and held over 100 meetings with farmers.
  • Gender inclusion: The PREVENT initiative seeks to bring a pragmatic level of understanding of gender dynamics within the poultry sector with the goal of positively impacting women chicken producers through the hatchery intervention. To serve this purpose, a rapid gender landscaping analysis was conducted in 3 countries representing East, West, and Southern Africa (Tanzania, Nigeria and Zimbabwe).
  • Epidemiological studies: This is an integrated component of the initiative that aims to explore and describe the epidemiology of poultry diseases at the level of small-scale poultry producers. To date, activity has started in Tanzania, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire where 52 samples have been collected.

Introducing changes upstream, at the hatchery level, echoes the positive impact all the way down to the farmer level, and contributes to creating a sound and sustainable system that will lead to an improvement in poultry productivity and efficiency in the targeted African countries.

April 2023 marks the second anniversary of this 4-year initiative. Much has been achieved so far, and much is yet to come.

The PREVENT initiative (PRomoting and Enabling Vaccination Efficiently, Now and Tomorrow) is a partnership between Ceva Santé Animale (a global veterinary health company) and GALVmed, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This blog was written by Patricia Valdeón Noya as part of the campaign “Celebrating 2 years of PREVENT”

Hatchery vaccination to boost opportunities for poultry producers in Africa

Posted on by team galvmed

Poultry is an important protein source and an asset for small-scale producers in Africa. However, losses due to preventable diseases continue to significantly impact farmers’ livelihoods and financial stability. Low poultry vaccination combined with inadequate information about circulating diseases and how to treat them form a constant barrier to production by small-scale producers (SSPs).

In April 2021 GALVmed and Ceva Santé Animale launched PREVENT, an initiative designed to establish an innovative and pragmatic veterinary health platform in Sub-Saharan Africa through hatchery vaccination. PREVENT will work with medium-size hatcheries in target countries to annually distribute more than 50 million vaccinated-old-chicks to SSPs. These chicks will be effectively protected against the major infectious poultry diseases thereby improving overall flock health and boosting SSPs’ financial prospects.

Apart from vaccination, there are other key elements in preventing and dealing with animal diseases, such as awareness, knowledge, adequate treatment, etc. In this understanding, the project will train and collaborate with a team of field technicians to assist and provide husbandry advice to poultry SSPs leading to best flock management practices.

PREVENT is an initiative not only focused on the clear benefits of poultry vaccination, but also set to be gender intentional. Intensification in poultry farming typically leads to erosion of the participation of women in management activities. This project will make deliberate efforts to minimise this trend in partner poultry SSPs households.

Lastly, there is a need of building knowledge on diseases that affect small-scale poultry production in scoped countries. To meet this need, an elaborate epidemiological study will be undertaken where samples will be collected at SSPs’ level for further analysis. It is believed that this knowledge will not only be valuable for the project but also inform future interventions.

In a nutshell, by implementing vaccination at the level of the hatcheries, there will be an impact all the way across the value chain that will ultimately improve the sustainability of poultry production system across the target Africa countries (Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Mozambique). Healthy poultry equals more opportunities to small-scale producers, who will minimise their losses and develop their business to get a more financially secure future.

The PREVENT project was officially launched on April 7, 2021. PREVENT (PRomoting and Enabling Vaccination Efficiently, Now and Tomorrow) is a 4-year initiative in partnership with the animal health company CEVA.

Press release

Written by Patricia Valdeón Noya