Dairy Development Forum—Quo Vadis?

Irish Ai

Exploring local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in northern and eastern Tanzania

Background: Zoonoses account for the most commonly reported emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is limited knowledge on how pastoral communities perceive zoonoses in relation to their livelihoods, culture and their wider ecology. This study was carried out to explore local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in Tanzania. Methodology and principal findings: This study involved pastoralists in Ngorongoro district in northern Tanzania and Kibaha and Bagamoyo districts in eastern Tanzania. Qualitative methods of focus group discussions, participatory epidemiology and interviews were used. A total of 223 people were involved in the study. Among the pastoralists, there was no specific term in their local language that describes zoonosis. Pastoralists from northern Tanzania possessed a higher understanding on the existence of a number of zoonoses than their eastern districts' counterparts. Understanding of zoonoses could be categorized into two broad groups: a local syndromic framework, whereby specific symptoms of a particular illness in humans concurred with symptoms in animals, and the biomedical framework, where a case definition is supported by diagnostic tests. Some pastoralists understand the possibility of some infections that could cross over to humans from animals but harm from these are generally tolerated and are not considered as threats. A number of social and cultural practices aimed at maintaining specific cultural functions including social cohesion and rites of passage involve animal products, which present zoonotic risk. Conclusions: These findings show how zoonoses are locally understood, and how epidemiology and biomedicine are shaping pastoralists perceptions to zoonoses. Evidence is needed to understand better the true burden and impact of zoonoses in these communities. More studies are needed that seek to clarify the common understanding of zoonoses that could be used to guide effective and locally relevant interventions. Such studies should consider in their approaches the pastoralists' wider social, cultural and economic set up

Dynamics and driving forces of hides, skins, leather and leather goods production and trade in Tanzania

Tanzania Veterinary Journal, 2014;29 (2): 1-17Hides, skins, leather and leather products are most traded commodities in the world and demand is increasing. Countries with large livestock populations have great opportunity to generate revenue from this resource. Studies were conducted in slaughterhouses, tanneries and leather good factories in Tanzania, aimed at determining quantities, qualities, processing and trade of hides and skins. Productions from slaughters are more than 3 million cattle hides, 3 million goatskins and 1 million sheepskins. Collected and exported quantities were 1,174,585 cattle hides, 1,591,990 and 304,167 goat and sheep skins. Companies from these destinations pre-pay livestock traders in advance and collect hides and skins at slaughter. Hides and skins are chrome or vegetable tanned at several industries including Afro Leather Industries Dar es Salaam while Himo Tanners and Planters and Afro Leather Industries produce finished leather. Qualities of hides were low because of flay cuts and brand markings. There is one leather footwear factory at Moshi and small scale leather goods factories in Arusha, Moshi, Mwanza, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Singida, Morogoro and in other places by individuals, youth groups, Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA) and Small Industries Organization (SIDO). Hides and skins processing is constrained by high international demand for raw hides and skins, inadequate investment in abattoirs, hides and skins collection and storage facilities and lack of trained personnel. Footwear and leather goods are constrained by lack of factories, competition from used goods, synthetic plastics and uninformed market. Investment in hides, skins and leather industry supported by training programmes has potential to generate great monetary revenue