Better Health for Livestock

Three recent developments improve the control of livestock diseases new and old, thereby protecting poor people and their income.

Scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and their collaborators have recently unveiled a series of pioneering new approaches to better control livestock diseases in developing countries and so benefit poor livestock keepers.

New approach to tackling bird flu. Earlier this year, the prestigious scientific journal Science showcased a new approach to controlling bird flu. ILRI scientists and collaborators are applying participatory epidemiology to improve the control of bird flu in Indonesia. This approach has previously been applied to control rinderpest in Africa, but this is the first time it has been tried for bird flu.

Indonesia has the worst bird flu problem in the world. Participatory epidemiology teams let veterinarians tap into local knowledge and enlist villagers' cooperation in control efforts.

" Indonesia turned up much more avian influenza than anyone expected," states ILRI scientist Dr. Jeff Mariner. "Poultry populations were fully saturated. Until recently the standard response was for government vets to indiscriminately cull all poultry. Understandably this was a cause of great resentment among smallholders. Talking to villagers allowed only those birds directly exposed to be identified and earmarked for culling, while others in the vicinity but not directly exposed could be vaccinated. Most villagers can be convinced of the need to cull birds directly exposed, and this approach empowers villagers to be part of the decision-making process rather than having decisions imposed upon them."

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Livestock vaccines alliance launched. The Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), of which ILRI is a founding member, recently had its international launch in Kenya. This marked the beginning of a 10-year program aiming to create sustainable solutions to the loss of human and animal life caused by livestock diseases that threaten 600 million of the poorest people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Zoonotic diseases, which are transmitted between animals and humans, mainly afflict the poorest households, as shown by the recent outbreak of Rift Valley fever in livestock in Kenya, which killed 150 people.

Livestock disease is one of the biggest barriers to development for poor livestock keepers. Flocks and herds die each year from diseases for which vaccines do not exist or are beyond the reach of the poor. GALVmed has identified 13 livestock diseases as key targets for the development of vaccines and diagnostics and aims to broker partnerships among pharmaceutical companies and other public and private sector organisations to develop accessible and affordable vaccines for the world's poorest farmers.

"Today, combating livestock diseases is everybody's business," warns Dr. Brian Perry, former senior scientist at ILRI and now a close collaborator. "Tropical animal diseases are no longer just a local problem. There is a threat that livestock diseases like Rift Valley fever will follow bluetongue into Europe."

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Global roadmap for foot-and-mouth disease. Perry and colleagues launched in April 2007 a new roadmap that aims to chart a pathway towards the effective control of foot-and-mouth disease in developing countries. The launch was hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at its headquarters in Rome.

On the left is Dr. Joseph Domenech, Head of Animal Health at FAO, and on the right is Dr. Brian Perry.

"Foot-and-mouth disease is a major obstacle to productivity and market access in many poor regions, particularly South Asia, the Horn of Africa and southern Africa," says John McDermott, ILRI deputy director general for research. "It severely limits market opportunities for poor farmers and nations wishing to access more lucrative markets, both regionally and internationally."

The Global roadmap for improving the tools to control foot-and-mouth disease in endemic settings envisions a world in which livestock-based livelihoods, enterprises and trade can flourish unimpeded by foot-and-mouth disease. For more information, click here.