Tag: livestock

How to bridge the divide across Africa’s fragmented veterinary medicine sector

Posted on by team galvmed

This blog was written by GALVmed CEO, Carolin Schumacher and published by CNBC-Africa.

From backyard chicken raising to the grazing cattle of nomadic pastoralists, across much of rural Africa, animal diseases travel faster and wider than veterinary medicine.

An estimated 800 million people keep chickens, goats and cattle across the continent as valuable sources of food, income, fuel and fibre. Yet across Africa, the most prominent livestock diseases cost an estimated $9 billion every year – roughly 6% of the total value of the continent’s livestock sector.

Protecting and treating animals across such a vast and disparate population and geographic expanse is complicated and costly. Getting vaccines and medicine to livestock in remote areas of Africa is often limited by a lack of knowledge, manpower, funding and reliable refrigerated transport. Even when resources exist, they are typically spread too thin to systematically protect animal health and, by extension, the incomes of livestock keepers.

With a rapidly growing population and demand for animal-derived protein, enabling the veterinary sector to address the diverse needs and challenges of small-scale producers is not only possible, but also critical to Africa’s sustainable development.

Entrusted with the safeguarding of national herds, government veterinary services have historically focused on the most detrimental diseases affecting large-scale livestock operations, leaving many small-scale farmers behind.

Efforts in the past have successfully dealt with damaging infectious livestock diseases, including eradicating the deadly cattle disease rinderpest in 2011 through an integrated global campaign. Yet existing government-led efforts to manage other contagious livestock diseases are now lagging.

Facing rising economic pressures and a significantly broadened mandate, many African governments can no longer achieve sufficient vaccination coverage and deliver “last mile” services that saw volunteers across the continent contribute to rinderpest’s eradication even in the most remote communities.

Comprehensive livestock health management today requires governments and other livestock health organisations to think holistically and consider the infectious diseases limiting small-scale livestock producers’ potential. This includes foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in cattle, as well as peste des petits ruminants (PPR), sheep and goat pox and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in sheep and goats.

Meanwhile, the global veterinary medicine industry has traditionally focused on addressing livestock health issues of the Global North, where the profitable markets justify the high cost of investments in research and development of new products.

Small-scale producers of large and small ruminants – cattle, sheep, and other grazing animals – in the Global South have not benefitted from such investment. A commercially viable market for ruminant vaccination does not currently exist. Where it does, it can be regularly undermined by free mass vaccination by governments, non-governmental organisations and development agencies. Simply put, there are not enough private veterinary vaccination efforts supporting small-scale livestock producers.

In recent years, the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) and several private animal health companies have succeeded in developing and bringing to market a more complete portfolio of affordable animal vaccines and medicines for small-scale livestock producers in the Global South. Further, combined efforts in the poultry sector have demonstrated that governments and businesses sharing responsibility can foster a functioning veterinary service sector and vibrant, locally adapted veterinary medicine infrastructure and industry that caters to the specific needs of small-scale producers.

In practice, this means creating demand through increased awareness about livestock diseases while providing uninterrupted access to affordable veterinary products at the farm level. Adequately addressing the needs of the continent’s tens of millions of small-scale producers requires opening the ruminant vaccines market for private sector development, particularly for vaccine suppliers, local supply chain actors and private veterinary service providers.

Improving product registration and distribution will also help to equip farmers across Africa with the tools needed to preserve their animals’ health and support food security and economic growth on the continent, including their own.

Together with our partners, GALVmed has delivered more than 1.2 billion vaccines and other animal health products to farmers across Africa and South Asia, preventing the deaths of more than 23 million livestock – and the associated impacts this has on farmers’ incomes and food security.

Currently, GALVmed’s partners are developing a suite of combination vaccinations that address multiple infectious livestock diseases with a single intervention. These new vaccines promise to facilitate and improve vaccination access for farmers. Preventing multiple diseases at a lower cost will protect their livestock and livelihoods more completely and for the long term.

The vision of a food-secure, resilient African continent is well worth the efforts of removing the barriers to the functioning of the African small-scale livestock-producing sector. When governments, policymakers, veterinarians and veterinary medicine developers put the needs of small-scale producers first, they can help fill the gaps of the fragmented livestock health sector. Today, most tools are available but stakeholders will have to work together to deliver them to the farmers who need them most, for the benefit of Africa’s small-scale livestock-producing sector and society at large.

Photo credit: GALVmed/Buta Photography. A woman selling veterinary medicines in Ghana, 2022.

How Clinical Diagnostics Could Help the Global Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Posted on by team galvmed

This blog was written by Thembinkosi Ramuthivheli (GALVmed), Marie-Elodie Le Guen (Ceva), and Dr. Pierre-Marie Borne (Ceva). Originally published by Farming First.

The misuse of antibiotics in both human and animal health has created an urgent health emergency globally. The resistance of microbes to antibiotics that are constantly used to combat them makes infections harder to treat, creating an antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis directly responsible for up to 1.27 million global human deaths as of 2019.

In developing countries, the challenges created by AMR are even more pronounced. Many small-scale producers, desperate to treat their infected livestock, turn to and misuse the most readily available antibiotics, further exacerbating the resistance to antibiotics while increasing losses due to death. As a result of the increasing threat of this phenomenon, AMR has become one of the priorities of the quadripartite agreement and the 2024 UN High-Level Meeting aimed at ramping up global action.

Essential diagnostic tools have also been initiated in several cities to aid in selecting the right antibiotics for specific livestock infections. Diagnostics have the potential to aid veterinarians in assisting farmers to identify specific disease-causing bacteria, allowing for the rationalised use of antibiotics. However, these tools are not easily accessible to small-scale producers in rural areas, setting the world several steps backwards in efforts to effectively combat the growing threat of AMR​.

Combating antimicrobial resistance with the OneLab Initiative

Small-scale producers generate about one-third of the world’s food supply and bear a significant brunt of the risks of AMR. To address the access gap between them and essential diagnostic tools to tackle microbial infections, Ceva Laprovet’s OneLab Initiative, in partnership with GALVmed, is supporting with a solution that brings clinical diagnostic services closer to small and medium-sized commercial farms. Traditionally, small-scale producers in poultry areas have faced difficulties accessing diagnostic tools, as laboratories that have them are often located far away and primarily in big cities. The long distances, challenges of transportation and delays in results have prevented farmers from getting the timely help they need when their poultry or livestock fall ill​.

OneLab technicians performing tests in one of the diagnostic centers, Senegal, 2023. . Credit: GALVmed/Mediaprod

The OneLab Initiative seeks to bridge this gap by setting up small laboratory units with diagnostic tools at veterinary clinics in poultry areas. Accessing diagnostics in these clinics allows for quick detection of bacterial infections which helps veterinarians recommend the most appropriate treatment for infected flocks, ensuring farmers use the right antibiotic while reducing the risk of antimicrobial resistance in their livestock.

The first tool introduced under the initiative is the orientation antibiogram, a practical diagnostic test that provides results in less than 24 hours. This enables veterinarians to determine not only if antibiotics should be used, but also which specific antibiotic will be most effective. This rapid feedback is critical in reducing the time farmers would otherwise spend on trial-and-error treatments, minimising losses due to disease​ and also ensuring overall reduction of the use of antibiotics.

Getting results in Senegal

In Senegal, the OneLab initiative has successfully calculated the level of resistance to antibiotics from different bacteria in the poultry sector. In 2023, the initiative was responsible for conducting up to 530 tests representing a total flock of 6.5 million birds across commercial poultry farms​. The data collected from these tests has provided valuable insights into the general level of resistance to antibiotics in the region as well as clinical information and evidence to accurately track their occurrence.

For instance, more than half of the bacteria tested were found to be resistant to most of the antibiotics commonly used by farmers in the region​. Without the diagnostics, veterinarians were blind to the sensitivity of different bacteria to specific antibiotics, often leading to the prescription of antibiotics that do not work. Farmers were also unaware of drug-resistant infections and effective measures to combat them before they led to unnecessary deaths among their flocks.

Poultry farmer feeding his flock in Senegal, 2023. Credit: GALVmed/Mediaprod

With diagnostic tools at their disposal, farmers who previously had to rely on a trial-and-error approach could now make informed decisions with the guidance of local veterinarians to reduce the losses of their livestock. This also helps them save significant sums of money by avoiding the purchase of ineffective antibiotics.

Moreover, the OneLab Initiative has sparked broader discussions about AMR within the veterinary community in Senegal. Annual meetings with veterinary authorities have raised awareness of drug-resistant microbes and the importance of diagnostics in combating their threat to animal lives. This growing awareness is essential to changing the mindset of both veterinarians and farmers when it comes to the advantages of the rational use of antibiotics​.

Clinical diagnostics as a path forward

Introducing diagnostics to veterinary clinics in poultry areas ultimately changes the paradigm of livestock management for both veterinarians and Small-scale producers. Livestock farmers in rural areas could have access to better antibiotic treatment options whenever a microbial infection is detected. This reduces the need for cycling through different antibiotics, as diagnostics offer a precise understanding of the infection.

Reducing poultry producers’ reliance on antibiotics helps to curb the further spread of drug-resistant microbes​. This change in approach, supported by diagnostics, also provides veterinarians with the ability to offer more accurate diagnostic services, improving the overall treatment of livestock. Farmers, in turn, are encouraged to adopt healthier practices that improve the health of their livestock while reducing the risk of antimicrobial resistance in them – a perfect win-win situation​.

The OneLab Initiative has demonstrated that more precise diagnostics can play a vital role in helping farmers rationalise their use of antibiotics to reduce the risks of antimicrobial resistance in their livestock. In Senegal, the number of diagnostics to get accurate solutions to bacterial infections in poultry has steadily increased since the initiative was launched. With this success, it is evident that introducing diagnostics in local veterinary clinics offers a scalable model that can be implemented in other regions suffering from similar challenges​. Initiatives bridging farmers’ access to diagnostics tools ultimately need worldwide support and visibility in order to increase their adoption as a viable solution to combat the growing antimicrobial resistance threat.

Header photo credit: ©2023 GALVmed/Mediaprod

How Digital Innovation Will Unlock the Potential of Africa’s Livestock Producers

Posted on by team galvmed

Written by Enrique Hernández Pando, Head of Commercial Development & Impact, and Tom Osebe, Senior Manager, Commercial Development & Impact, Africa. Originally published by Farming First.

New animal health platforms are needed to unleash the commercial and development potential of small-scale livestock producers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Home to tens of millions of small-scale livestock producers and a quarter of the world’s livestock, Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to become the commercial powerhouse of the animal health industry. For decades, however, a variety of investment barriers have prevented animal health companies from tapping into this potential. A lack of market data and intelligence makes investment a challenging proposition and the widely dispersed and often remote farms tended by small-scale producers are a challenge to veterinary service networks.

This is not just bad news for business. Limited investment has denied the continent’s small-scale producers the same access to quality animal health products and expertise as their counterparts in the Global North. Reliant on limited and often unregulated medicines and unable to meet regularly with vets, millions of small-scale producers are forced to raise their animals sub-optimally, impacting profits. Livestock’s proven ability to fuel sustainable development through increased incomes, improved nutrition and economic prosperity is being curtailed.

Now for the good news. With digital innovations that are already being developed, we can unleash the enormous potential of Sub-Saharan Africa’s small-scale livestock producers and turbo-charge the animal health industry.

Market intelligence platform

Establishing prosperous and sustainable animal health markets is a long-term goal of the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), an organisation dedicated to making livestock vaccines, medicines and diagnostics accessible and affordable in Africa and South Asia. For the past few years, GALVmed has been working with a wide range of partners to create a suite of digital platforms designed to finally bridge the gaps between the animal health industry and the continent’s small-scale producers.

The first of these – which is being developed in partnership with AgNexus Africa, Kruger Consulting, Pizzly Consult and Folio3 – is a Market Intelligence Platform. By aggregating reliable and up-to-date sales data from various sources in the animal health industry, the Market Intelligence Platform will give companies an unprecedented understanding of the size and nature of the animal health market across sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2024, a minimum viable product will be developed to allow users to size and estimate the Kenyan market. This will help companies quantify demand, secure investments and reach underserved small-scale livestock producers. The platform will be expanded to include Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria. 

To ensure the Market Intelligence Platform continues to provide accurate information for years to come, GALVmed is also helping to digitise the agrodealer industry. Since December 2023, AgNexus Africa and GALVmed have been equipping hundreds of agrodealers in Kenya and Tanzania with smart devices that log their sales. Not only is this improving the efficiency of the industry, but the logged sales data will be fed into the Market Intelligence Platform, providing businesses with a steady stream of real-time market data. 

Telehealth and e-commerce platform

The second major innovation is the Telehealth and E-commerce Platform, which is designed to tackle the limited reach of animal health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, vets and paravets can only visit about five farms a day as they navigate remote villages, poor infrastructure and seasonal access roads. The Telehealth and E-commerce Platform is set to dramatically increase the number of cases these professionals can take on by enabling virtual consultations and clinical sign recognition.

In partnership with VetNOW, the National Animal Disease Information Service and Africa Veterinary Technicians Association, a team of 10 vets has been enlisted to populate the platform with diagnostic information for an initial 55 priority diseases of cattle, sheep and goats. There are also plans for the platform to enable vets and paravets to give prescriptions, order products, submit cases for laboratory testing and even scan product barcodes to see if a particular animal health product is licensed to be traded. The Telehealth and E-commerce Platform will in future integrate with the Market Intelligence Platform, creating comprehensive market datasets for the poorly understood last mile of animal health value chains.   

In 2024, a minimum viable product offering telemedicine and clinical sign recognition – but without the e-commerce component – will be developed, covering Kenya’s Kiambu and Nakuru counties. This project is being implemented within Kenya’s veterinary medicine practice regulations.

Unleashing the potential of livestock producers

These platforms will be available via AgNexus Africa and VetNOW. The Market Intelligence Platform data will use a fee-based subscription model to ensure its long-term sustainability. The Telehealth and E-commerce Platform, meanwhile, will work on a demand aggregation model – similar to how taxi and food delivery apps work – with VetNOW in charge of the day-to-day operations. 

By ending the disconnect between the animal health sector and small-scale livestock producers, these platforms will help unleash the commercial and development potential of sub-Saharan Africa’s livestock.

Cover image credit: @Shutterstock/Wazzkii

Invest in Women to Accelerate Progress

Posted on by team galvmed

International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on March 8, is a day to reflect on the gender disparities that hinder women’s opportunities worldwide, while advocating for policies and strategies that pave the path to gender equality.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2024, as set by  UN Women, is Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress. With this campaign, UN Women shed light on an alarming reality: An additional $360 billion per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals, including to end poverty and hunger.

In the livestock context, where GALVmed operates, we must advocate for animal health and livestock strategies that are designed with attention to and addressing gender issues and inequities, to ensure women have equal access to resources and business opportunities as men. By investing in women, we not only advance global goals such as food security and poverty eradication, but also build a more inclusive and sustainable world.

How is GALVmed contributing to women’s empowerment?

Why is it important to invest in women in the livestock sector?

Women make up 43 percent of the global agricultural labour force, and therefore their work and contributions are of tremendous importance. Despite their potential to drive change within the agriculture and livestock sector towards more resilient, prosperous, and sustainable systems, rural women still face numerous challenges that leave them, and their communities, behind. We must allocate resources toward initiatives that amplify women’s contributions and opportunities, catalysing progress for women and men alike. This International Women’s Day, as well as every day of the year, let’s advocate for increased investment in women as a crucial step to help closing the gender gap and forging a future where everyone can thrive.

Banner Photo: Pascal Maitre & Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

Written by Patricia Valdeón Noya as part of the International Women’s Day 2024 campaign on #InvestInWomen

GALVmed’s Achievements

Posted on by team galvmed

Over one billion people around the world depend on livestock for their livelihoods, of which more than 900 million are in Africa and South Asia. However, preventable animal diseases pose a constant threat to productivity, food safety and security, income, opportunities, and individual and community prosperity. Consequently, protecting livestock is critical to improving human lives.

Focusing on sub–Saharan Africa and South Asia, GALVmed’s vision is transformational improvement in the well-being and economic progression of small-scale livestock producers. We do this through:

  • Improving availability: By researching, improving and developing much-needed animal health products and solutions.
  • Increasing accessibility:  By ensuring the needed products reach the markets and are accessible and affordable to small-scale producers.
  • Improving adoption: By easing barriers in the regulatory and policy environment, facilitating product registration.
  • Increasing understanding: By providing practical data and information from the small-scale livestock producer field to measure impact and facilitate data-driven decisions.

Working in collaboration with partners, GALVmed has implemented, over the years, various programmes across Africa and South Asia. GALVmed’s achievements from 2014 to 2022 are:

  • 1.2 billion livestock vaccines, therapeutics and other animal health products sold to small-scale customers in 15 countries across Africa and South Asia.
  • Approximately 5.7 million cumulative annual customers served.
  • 23.7 million livestock deaths averted saving the sector approximately of $386 million.
  • Approximately $119 million of cattle mortalities averted from East Coast Fever disease.
  • Approximately $52.5 million in poultry deaths averted from Newcastle disease.
  • 15 new animal health products developed since 2010.
  • A total of 9 products registered under the Mutual Recognition Procedure (MRP) to date.
  • Over 90 publications disseminated.

These achievements reflect not just progress but also strong commitment to improving the lives of those who depend on livestock for their livelihoods. GALVmed remains dedicated to collaborating with partners to ensure effective animal health products are widely available in sub–Saharan Africa and south Asia, contributing to our purpose of protecting livestock to improve human lives.

Why combination vaccines are better for small-scale livestock producers

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Written by Stephen Wilson, Director, Research & Development (VITAL projects) and Kellen Asena, Senior Marketing Manager, GALVmed. Originally published by Farming First.

Livestock is a crucial source of income for small-scale livestock producers. Globally, it is estimated that around 78 per cent of the world’s poorest communities rely on agricultural work to support their livelihoods and households. However, livestock diseases represent $358.4 billion in lost production per year.

Access to veterinary care is a critical piece of the puzzle, with higher vaccination rates associated with higher productivity. However, expensive vaccines often do not reach those who rely on healthy animals the most for their livelihoods, income and food security: small-scale livestock producers.

Small-scale livestock producers often live in remote areas and face many constraints around access to veterinary care, including the lack of financial means to pay for the necessary medicines, and sometimes even lack of knowledge on some of the diseases that their livestock may suffer from. Often, suitable vaccines are distributed in disproportionate pack sizes or are simply unavailable. However, combination vaccines, also known as multi-valent vaccines can address these access challenges and more, offering the best value for resource-poor livestock keepers.

Alternatives for smallholder farmers

The prevalence of diseases such as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in livestock is rife across the African continent, causing significant economic losses for farmers and harm to animal health and welfare. Yet, major gaps exist in the portfolio of products required by small-scale producers to effectively control pressing livestock diseases. Combination and concurrent vaccines, meaning those which target more than one disease in a single dose or administration, offer effective and affordable value to small-scale producers with an outstanding return on investment and a multitude of benefits.

For instance, combination vaccines are more cost-effective than single-use vaccinations, which tend to be more expensive. The Sheep Goat Pox/PPR combination vaccine, for example, is 40 per cent cheaper than the cost of the two vaccines delivered separately. 

Multi-valent vaccines also provide maximum coverage against multiple diseases, rather than simply one livestock disease. They require just a single dose to be administered and therefore are less burdensome on the farmer, the animal, and the veterinarians. There have also been improvements around pack sizes, with 10, 50 and 100 doses available.

Developing multi-valent vaccines

Together with partners, GALVmed is funding the development of several multi-valent vaccines against livestock diseases that are most endemic across Africa and South Asia and currently have the most negative impacts on food security for smallholder farmers. Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP), for example, can result in economic losses of over $507 million per year in endemic areas, while PPR is highly contagious and affects almost 70 countries across the African continent. SGP affects goats and sheep and can lead to economic losses amounting to $48 million per year across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Other diseases that combination vaccines are targeting include Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP), Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), Newcastle Disease (ND), and Infectious Bursal Disease (Gumboro) (IBD).

For example, the CCPP/PPR/SGP combination vaccine for small ruminant diseases in affected regions ensures maximum disease coverage using a single vaccine and through distribution networks operating effective cold chains. This combination vaccine is significantly cheaper than monovalent vaccines. The addition of the RVF dosage to the CBPP+LSD/Rift Valley Fever vaccine – known as a concurrent vaccine – is of particular importance to smallholder farmers as it offers enhanced protection against RVF outbreaks when administered at the same time.

Other combination vaccines include the bi-valent PPR/SGP vaccine – of which GALVmed, together with a commercial partner, has sold over 27 million doses to date – as well as multi-valent vaccines against ND and Infectious bronchitis.

Looking ahead

Encouraging governments across the Global South to open up the market for private sector development could ensure small-scale farmers are able to purchase vaccines more easily and efficiently, which is particularly important in the case of a disease outbreak when a rapid response time could make or break disease control efforts.

It is estimated that 800 million people in Africa rely on healthy livestock for their livelihoods. One of the fastest-growing agricultural subsectors in developing countries, livestock accounts for around 30 per cent of agricultural GDP. However, smallholder farmers in low-income, rural areas often lack access to vaccinations and veterinary care resulting from logistical and supply chain difficulties and costs. Combination vaccines could be the answer, offering a viable and cost-effective alternative for small-scale livestock farmers all around the world.

‘One Health’: Investing in Animal Health to get the world back on track

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Written by Karelle De Luca, Head of Research & Development. Originally published by Fair Planet.

There are just seven years to go until 2030. That means there are just seven years left to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its 169 targets. Yet, the world was starkly reminded in July by top United Nations officials ahead of the SDG Summit that it is “tremendously off track” to reach these Goals.

In fact, a mere 15 per cent of the SDGs are on track, while many are in reverse. 

Against the backdrop of a myriad of complex, interconnected global challenges such as climate change and global economic insecurity, reaching all 169 targets by 2030 is looking increasingly less probable – unless action and investment are accelerated.

Indeed, world leaders’ recent political declaration to spur commitment to rescue the SDGs is a welcome step in the right direction, as they call for more investment in climate action, clean energy, education, health and much more. However, there is one important sector that also needs investment and is often overlooked in the role it can play to ensure the world gets back on track to our shared sustainability goals: the animal health sector. 

The ‘One Health’ approach

Investing in animal health – and in particular livestock – has a multitude of benefits for animals, people and the environment. That’s ‘One Health’ – the notion that human, animal, and plant health are interdependent.

Livestock is a crucial source of income for smallholder farmers, with about 78 per cent of the world’s poorest relying on agricultural work to support their livelihoods and households. However, each year, tens of millions of livestock die due to diseases.

Livestock diseases represent around USD 358 billion in lost production each year – production that could otherwise support global food security and more resilient livelihoods for small-scale farmers, particularly at a time when the African continent faces compounded challenges from climate change and supply chain shocks. 

However, investment in animal health and welfare can help. Thanks to a concerted vaccination effort over a decade ago, for

example, which saw the development of an inexpensive vaccine, costing from $3 to $16 per hundred doses, rinderpest in livestock was completely eradicated. Its eradication allows the continent to avoid a loss of $920 million a year, with household income in Ethiopia estimated to have risen by $40 million.

Improving animal health through investment boosts productivity and supports more resilient livelihoods, all of which are considered indicators of the Global Goals.

Beyond boosting livelihoods, enhancing animal health not only keeps livestock themselves healthy but also protects humans by reducing the risk of diseases spreading between the two. Up to 75 per cent of new or emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic in origin – that is, transmitted from wild animals – the importance of better animal health cannot be understated, as livestock often act as the bridge between people and zoonoses from wild animals.

Africa alone has witnessed a 63 per cent increase in the number of zoonotic disease outbreaks in the last decade. 

Increased investment is needed to make the full suite of livestock health tools available to farmers, including vaccines and other measures, which in turn helps to lower the usage of antibiotics on farms. This also helps to minimise the risk of developing new resistant strains of bacteria, reducing the effectiveness of vital antimicrobial treatments in both human and veterinary medicine.

More effective vaccines and delivery mechanisms are particularly critical for small-scale farmers in the Global South. For instance, the development of multi-valent vaccines offer pragmatic and cost-effective disease control tools for smallholder farmers. To date, GALVmed-supported initiatives have sold an estimated over one billion livestock vaccines, therapeutics and other animal health products to smallholders in 15 countries across Africa and South Asia.

Healthier animals and improved livestock management practices can also help to reduce the sector’s environmental footprint – known as the third pillar of the One Health approach – bringing us one step closer to SDG 13 (Climate Action). Animals suffering from illness have a higher carbon footprint, while healthier animals are more productive and produce less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

For example, a reduction of disease levels in livestock of roughly 10 percentage points is associated with an 800 million tonne decrease in GHG emissions. This adds up to nearly as much as Nigeria and South Africa’s total emissions, combined. 

While better livestock health can ensure a higher quality of life for animals, it is also an investment with far-reaching returns: from improved food security, economic growth, better human health and a healthier planet. 

As such, there is therefore a greater need to ensure that farmers are better equipped with the tools needed to improve animal health, particularly in those regions where they have proven inaccessible or expensive. Investing in livestock health through a One Health approach is a key solution to ensuring the world’s sustainability agenda gets back on track.

Image credit: @GALVmed/Alternatives.

It Pays to Invest in Animal Welfare

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Written by Carolin Schumacher, CEO, GALVmed.

Animal welfare has the power to transform the lives of those who depend on livestock. Well-maintained animals are not only healthier and happier but also more profitable. By living longer and suffering from fewer diseases, they can save their owners considerable sums in medicines, veterinarian bills and the need to purchase or acquire new animals. Healthy livestock also produce more meat, milk or eggs over their lifetime, increasing the productivity and efficiency of livestock businesses. Whether it’s a cattle ranch in Kenya or a backyard chicken coop in India, it pays – quite literally – to invest in animal welfare.

Barriers to livestock welfare

Unfortunately, many of the 900 million people working in small-scale livestock production across the Global South lack access to the resources to improve the health and wellbeing of their animals. Limited private sector investment in lower- and middle-income countries, together with the challenges of reaching remote rural communities, mean that the high-quality animal health products commonplace in Europe and North America are often rare or non-existent elsewhere. Demand is instead met, if at all, by unregulated products and counterfeits of uncertain quality.

All of this means that producers in Africa and South Asia often have no choice but to rear health-impaired or disease-prone livestock. The owner of a backyard chicken coop in India knows that an outbreak of Newcastle disease could wipe out his or her entire flock, but may lack the funds to vaccinate their animals. A Kenyan cattle herder, meanwhile, may have limited access to vaccination services against Rift Valley fever, a destructive zoonotic disease endemic in Africa.

Locked into unprofitable business models, small-scale farmers are unable to expand their enterprises, pay for medical bills or, in some cases, even send their children to school. For the 600 million people whose diets are centred around livestock, the loss of these animals to disease can also jeopardise their food and nutrition security. Poor animal welfare holds back not only individuals, but families and entire communities.

Supporting healthy livestock

Improving animal health, especially through the creation and distribution of new and improved vaccines is critical. For example, an affordable, thermostable and easily administered vaccine against Newcastle disease was developed, specifically designed to benefit the poor and hard-to-reach livestock producers currently underserved by the private sector. Since 2010, 264 million doses of this vaccine have been sold to more than three million small-scale poultry owners in Africa and South Asia, transforming their lives and livelihoods.

The development of a safe and effective concurrent vaccine against Rift Valley fever and two other important ruminant diseases are also in its final stages. Once approved for sale, this vaccine will enable more frequent and regular administrations of Rift Valley fever vaccinations, reducing the risk of outbreaks and strengthening rural livelihoods.

To ensure game-changing products like these reach small-scale producers in Africa and South Asia, GALVmed is also supporting animal health companies to invest in the Global South. Whether by providing the private sector with much-needed market data, facilitating public-private partnerships or helping governments to develop robust policies, GALVmed works to create an enabling environment for animal health products and an essential bridge between product developers and livestock producers.

Prosperous and sustainable animal health markets

Livestock producers throughout Africa and South Asia, no matter how small-scale or remote they may be, must be able to access and benefit from the same range and quality of animal health products as their counterparts in the Global North.

Animal welfare is the foundation all these efforts must be built upon. By providing small-scale livestock producers with the resources and support they need to care for their animals, GALVmed and its partners are supporting the economic development and empowerment of individuals, families and communities across Africa and South Asia.

Originally published by Farming Firsts.

It’s Time to Celebrate the Climate Benefits of Livestock Health

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This blog was written by GALVmed CEO, Carolin Schumacher.

In recent years, debates about the relationship between livestock and climate change have become dominated by concerns over the carbon and methane emissions of the cattle industry. These concerns are of course valid and need to be part of climate change discussions. But they do not tell the whole story.

In the Global South, a much more nuanced approach to livestock is needed. Here, livestock are the main source of food and income for 600 million people, and are an essential component of national and regional food systems. For millions of small-scale farmers, livestock are at the heart of their lives, livelihoods and cultures. Even though these farmers are under increasing pressures due to climate change, abandoning livestock is simply not an option for them or the countries in which they live.

Fortunately, evidence is growing to show that relatively simple interventions in livestock farming in the Global South can dramatically reduce the industry’s environmental impact. Providing cattle and sheep with a more diverse diet, for example, can reduce methane emissions. In addition, improved land management practices, such as fencing off degraded pasture, have been shown to conserve water, reduce overgrazing and strengthen the soil’s ability to absorb carbon.

Healthy livestock for a healthy planet

GALVmed’s mission to improve livestock health through vaccination also has positive climate and environmental impacts. This might seem surprising, but the science behind it is simple: healthier animals are more productive, while more productive animals emit fewer greenhouse gases relative to the amount of meat or milk they produce. 

Livestock vaccinations also reduce the number of animals that are killed, whether by disease or government-mandated culls, thereby further improving the sector’s productivity and carbon efficiency. By raising fewer healthier animals – rather than many unhealthy ones – farmers require fewer resources, reducing the need to deforest and clear unspoilt habitats for farmland.

GALVmed’s work not only boosts smallholder incomes and supports prosperous and sustainable markets, but also contributes to a greener future and  reduced mortality rates among vaccinated animals. 

The East Coast Fever vaccine, for example, has prevented approximately $119 million worth of cattle deaths, and the new all-in-one treatment for Lumpy Skin Disease, Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia and Rift Valley Fever – currently in the stages of registration – looks set to deliver similarly impressive results. In addition to product development, increasing private-sector investment in animal health allows smallholders to choose from an ever-growing stock of quality animal health products, enabling them to rear healthier, more productive livestock. The Global South, stands to benefit enormously from greater private-sector investment in livestock vaccinations and other quality animal health products. 

These benefits will go far beyond improving the lives of animals and farmers. By reducing waste, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and relieving pressures on the natural environment, they stand to positively impact communities, countries and the entire planet – while continuing to support the lives and livelihoods of millions of the world’s poorest.

Photo: Maasai herder. Arusha, Tanzania, 2015. @GALVmed/Karel Prinsloo, 2015

Vaccine Equality is as Vital for Livestock as for People

Posted on by team galvmed

Written by Enrique Hernández Pando, GALVmed’s Executive Director, Commercial Development & Impact.

For 33-year-old mother-of-seven and poultry farmer Helena Kindole in Chanya village in Tanzania, one of the main barriers to growing her chicken business is a lack of access to health services. But not for herself or her family – for her animals.

With smallholder poultry farming often a lifeline for millions of low-income and rural families – accounting for 80% of poultry production in the region – access to medicines and vaccines is just as important for livestock as it is for people. And yet, logistical, infrastructural, and supply challenges are hindering access to veterinary services across the African continent and therefore, holding back smallholder productivity.

At the same time, a rapidly industrialising poultry sector in many developed countries, and an increase in grain prices globally, coupled with cheap imports from more developed markets and low access to animal health care is driving inequality between small- and large-scale producers, threatening to squeeze out smallholder poultry farmers.

Thankfully, this is starting to change. Animal health initiatives are helping local hatcheries to vaccinate chicks against common and damaging diseases before selling them to small-scale farmers, who rear the chicks until they are six months old, eventually selling them to neighbours, restaurants, and other businesses nearby.

For women like Helena, who make up nearly half of the global agricultural workforce in developing countries and in sub-Saharan Africa, the poultry sector offers a crucial source of income and healthy animals are essential for decent livelihoods.

Equipping farmers with the right tools can help to set them up for success to compete alongside more industrialised production systems.

Introducing vaccinations at local hatcheries can strengthen small-scale producers’ sustainability and commercial clout. Supporting these hatcheries with the necessary vaccination equipment and expertise means they can provide customers with large numbers of chicks that are vaccinated against common poultry diseases, such as Newcastle disease and Infectious bronchitis, the former of which contributes to 60% of poultry mortalities in many African countries. This reduces the risk of bird loss, contributing to improved income and more successful businesses overall.

PREVENT project in Tanzania/Iringa, 2021, Helena Kindole. Credit: Colin Dames/CEVA

But implementing vaccination measures alone is not enough, as a lack of technical support and knowledge on zoonoses and other infectious diseases that affect poultry can also hinder productivity. Training on animal health practices, market development opportunities, and advice on biosecurity, good management practices, and more are also crucial pieces of the puzzle. Providing this can help to level the playing field between large scale, industrial hatcheries and small-scale producers.

The PREVENT project (Promoting and Enabling Vaccination Efficiently, Now and Tomorrow) is one example of an initiative working to improve poultry production for Africa’s rapidly growing population. In just two years, this four-year initiative has administered 159 million vaccine doses and vaccinated 49 million hatchery chicks. It has also trained 100 field technicians who have conducted 2,600 farm visits and held over 1,400 farmer meetings across four countries in sub-Saharan Africa, to date.

A low-input but high-producing sector, raising chickens offers a reliable pathway out of poverty for many rural households. A small-scale producer can easily sell their chicks or chickens at the market as they are more affordable for the consumer than beef, for example, but also bring a myriad of other benefits. They add value to social structures, are high in protein, and, on top of this, can directly benefit women who in fact make up the majority of smallholder poultry farmers in the developing world.

Small-scale chicken farmer in Tanzania/Arusha, 2015. Credit: Karel Prinsloo/GALVmed

Against the backdrop of a global cost of living crisis, record-breaking temperatures, and ongoing conflicts, closing the inequality gap for smallholder farmers is critical to build a sustainable future for all. Supporting small-scale producers with training, animal health measures, and much more can help to level the playing field, one small-scale producer at a time, just like Helena.