LIVESTOCK DISEASE CONTROL protect their herds and their livelihoods. “These are livestock keepers who know cattle and who know diseases,” she says. “They are willing to adopt a technology if it works - to commit themselves to a product where they see it gives them a future in livestock production.” VetAgro has a network of 90 delivery vets, trained in the ECF “infection and treatment” method and about to be officially certified. Lynen feels this is crucial in order to resolve concerns about mismanagement by some vaccinators, including use of ‘dead’ vaccine, which has been injected too long after removal from the cold chain, and cases of financial fraud.
Sharing the success
News of the efficacy of the ECF vaccine spreads quickly amongst the pastoralist community once vaccination begins to be adopted in an area, observes Lynen. However, VetAgro is also raising awareness through sensitisation days and use of film and radio. VetAgro is keen to work with community animal health workers (CAHWs). Chosen and trusted by their communities, they are well placed to connect livestock keepers with certified vaccinators. A partnership with the Babati-based Community Animal Health Network is currently being developed by VetAgro to link with the many CAHWs who play an important role in alerting their communities to disease outbreaks and have been trained in recent years through various NGO programmes. Through this network, VetAgro hopes to extend the reach of CAHWs for organising and publicising vaccination days. According to Kapoo Lucumay, a veterinary assistant and trained ECF vaccinator working in Longido district, Tanzania, arranging vaccination days is not difficult once livestock keepers are aware of the success of the vaccine. “It is the livestock keepers who arrange it,” he says. “They just talk and find out the number of animals they have between them. Then they phone and ask me to come and do the immunisation. There is no problem, because they already know the importance of this vaccine.”
Challenges
Developed 30 years ago, the ECF vaccine has been shown to be a highly effective product, with a 95 percent success rate in pastoral herds - one of the highest rates of protection offered 12 BAOBAB ISSUE 58, JULY 2010
by any livestock vaccine. However, up till now, governments in East, Central and Southern Africa have not supported widespread adoption of the ECF vaccine due to the complexity of delivering the vaccine, which requires the vials to be stored in liquid nitrogen. Administering the vaccine also requires training as the vaccine is administered in combination with an antibiotic to allow antibodies to ECF to build up without the disease taking hold. Maintaining the production and supply of the vaccine is seen as the key challenge to widespread vaccination, and such private sector involvement is an essential component. GALVmed is currently putting vaccination delivery out to tender in the private sector; inviting bids that will be scrutinised by a panel of organisations, including the African Union/IBAR and Pan African Vaccine Centre, which is responsible for quality control of all livestock vaccines on the continent. Hameed Nuru, GALVmed director of policy and external affairs, outlines what the panel will be looking for in the applications: “Number one, these business proposals have to be sustainable, we have to have continuity. Two - they have to be pro-poor, pricing the product for poor people. And three, distribution of the production must be for a defined area.” The intention is that all aspects of vaccine production and delivery will be in private hands by the end of 2011. In the longer term, research is likely to focus on a new generation of vaccine that does not require the liquid nitrogen cold chain or the combined treatment with antibiotics.
Private sector future One vial of vaccine currently contains enough doses for 40 animals. In future, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which produces the vaccine, may look at developing a smaller vial of just five or eight doses, providing a more marketable product for private sector companies with an interest in setting up vaccination services. The article was adopted from The “New Agriculturist” a WRENmedia production based in the UK. www.new-ag.info Additional information from: www.infonet-biovision.org/default/ct/653/animalDiseases www.agfax.net/radio/detail.php?i=353 www.galvmed.org/news-resources/content/east-coast-fevervaccine-registered-tanzania