Adaptive Capacity of Farmers to Climate Change in the Kassena Nankana Municipality of Ghana: Implications for climate adaptation strategies

This study analyzed factors that contribute to the adaptive capacity of farmers based on their settlement types and use/access to five forms of capital assets (natural, social, financial, physical and human). The use/access to assets were estimated and categorized into high, moderate and low adaptive capacities. The data was based on a survey of 155 farmers from three communities in the Kassena Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana. From the findings, Manyoro, the urban community, recorded the highest adaptive score although their illiteracy level was highest. Low adaptive farmers had low access to credits and alternative livelihoods compared to farmers with high adaptive capacity. Access to irrigation had a positive significant influence on adaptive capacity. In general, the more accessible a resource was to a farmer, the more adaptable that farmer was to climate change. Following the findings of this study, it is important that policy interventions in the area prioritize creation and encouragement in alternative livelihoods sources as a means of increasing the adaptive capacity of famers in the rural and semi-urban areas. Also, private and government institutions should invest in irrigation and credits facilities as measures for economic growth and adaptation to the effects of climate change on agriculture. Farmers should be empowered through better extension and agroclimatic information and other affordable modern technologies

Impact of indigenous natural resources regulatory systems of fishing on the fisheries of a small coastal lagoon in Ghana

Many African cultures have indigenous practices that regulate the exploitation of natural resources. One such practice in Ghana is the close and open seasons for the utilisation of water bodies and the fisheries resources they provide. Compliance with the close seasons, however, has declined over the years, and this has the potential to affect fish stocks. We evaluated the impact of indigenous systems that seek to regulate natural resources exploitation on the fisheries of a small coastal lagoon, Sakumo, in Ghana. We measured fishing intensity, catch per unit effort, length-weight relationship and condition factor (K) of fish species harvested in both the open and close seasons. The predominant fish species recorded in fishermen’s catches were tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus and Sarotherodon melanotheron, which accounted for 47.62% and 35.60% by weight respectively of fish samples collected. Fishing activities occurred throughout the period of study irrespective of the season. The indigenous regulatory systems were neither respected, nor enforced by the traditional authorities, hence the lagoon fisheries continue to be overexploited. In the long run, this could lead to the collapse of the lagoon fisheries, with serious adverse impact on the livelihoods of the coastal communities who depend on this resource

Understanding drivers of urban bushmeat demand in a Ghanaian market

Wild meat (or bushmeat) is consumed as a luxury item in many African cities. By contrast, bushmeat is an important source of food and income for many poor households in rural areas. To curb the flow of bushmeat from rural to urban areas, understanding drivers of demand in city markets, and their impact on hunter revenues remains fundamental. Here, we present a simple econometric model for the trade of a commercially important bushmeat species in Ghana, the grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus). We explore own-price and cross-price elasticity of demand of grasscutter meat relative to commonly consumed alternative meats (goat, beef, poultry and fish) in the Atwemonom market in Kumasi city, Ghana. We show that: 1) grasscutter demand is elastic to its own price, 2) beef has an elastic cross-price elasticity, and 3) grasscutter is a luxury good, highly sensitive to consumer income. The elastic nature of the market suggests that price control policies e.g. “wild meat” tax, could reduce demand. Given that beef is the best substitute in our study area, we suggest that investment in Ghana’s underdeveloped cattle industry may reduce wildlife demand while also supporting herding economies. Critically, our results demonstrated that policies that aim to reduce bushmeat demand are likely to impact hunter revenues. This finding underscores the need for complimentary investments in the rural economy to drive incomes and off-set any revenue losses as a result of a decline in bushmeat demand

Characterising Wildlife Trade Market Supply-Demand Dynamics.

The trade in wildlife products can represent an important source of income for poor people, but also threaten wildlife locally, regionally and internationally. Bushmeat provides livelihoods for hunters, traders and sellers, protein to rural and urban consumers, and has depleted the populations of many tropical forest species. Management interventions can be targeted towards the consumers or suppliers of wildlife products. There has been a general assumption in the bushmeat literature that the urban trade is driven by consumer demand with hunters simply fulfilling this demand. Using the urban bushmeat trade in the city of Kumasi, Ghana, as a case study, we use a range of datasets to explore the processes driving the urban bushmeat trade. We characterise the nature of supply and demand by explicitly considering three market attributes: resource condition, hunter behaviour, and consumer behaviour. Our results suggest that bushmeat resources around Kumasi are becoming increasingly depleted and are unable to meet demand, that hunters move in and out of the trade independently of price signals generated by the market, and that, for the Kumasi bushmeat system, consumption levels are driven not by consumer choice but by shortfalls in supply and consequent price responses. Together, these results indicate that supply-side processes dominate the urban bushmeat trade in Kumasi. This suggests that future management interventions should focus on changing hunter behaviour, although complementary interventions targeting consumer demand are also likely to be necessary in the long term. Our approach represents a structured and repeatable method to assessing market dynamics in information-poor systems. The findings serve as a caution against assuming that wildlife markets are demand driven, and highlight the value of characterising market dynamics to inform appropriate management

Manipulating vector transmission reveals local processes in bacterial communities of batss

Infectious diseases result from multiple interactions among microbes and hosts, but community ecology approaches are rarely applied. Manipulation of vector populations provides a unique opportunity to test the importance of vectors in infection cycles while also observing changes in pathogen community diversity and species interactions. Yet for many vector-borne infections in wildlife, a biological vector has not been experimentally verified and few manipulative studies have been performed. Using a captive colony of fruit bats in Ghana, we observed changes in the community of Bartonella bacteria over time after the decline and subsequent reintroduction of bat flies. With reduced transmission, community changes were attributed to ecological drift and potential selection through interspecies competition mediated by host immunity. This work demonstrated that forces maintaining diversity in communities of free-living macroorganisms act in similar ways in communities of symbiotic microorganisms, both within and among hosts. Additionally, this study is the first to experimentally test the role of bat flies as vectors of Bartonella species

A framework for the study of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers: spillover of bat pathogens as a case study

Many serious emerging zoonotic infections have recently arisen from bats, including Ebola, Marburg, SARS-coronavirus, Hendra, Nipah, and a number of rabies and rabies-related viruses, consistent with the overall observation that wildlife are an important source of emerging zoonoses for the human population. Mechanisms underlying the recognized association between ecosystem health and human health remain poorly understood and responding appropriately to the ecological, social and economic conditions that facilitate disease emergence and transmission represents a substantial societal challenge. In the context of disease emergence from wildlife, wildlife and habitat should be conserved, which in turn will preserve vital ecosystem structure and function, which has broader implications for human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, while simultaneously minimizing the spillover of pathogens from wild animals into human beings. In this review, we propose a novel framework for the holistic and interdisciplinary investigation of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers, using the spillover of bat pathogens as a case study. This study has been developed to gain a detailed interdisciplinary understanding, and it combines cutting-edge perspectives from both natural and social sciences, linked to policy impacts on public health, land use and conservation

A framework for the study of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers: spillover of bat pathogens as a case study

Many serious emerging zoonotic infections have recently arisen from bats, including Ebola, Marburg, SARS-coronavirus, Hendra, Nipah, and a number of rabies and rabies-related viruses, consistent with the overall observation that wildlife are an important source of emerging zoonoses for the human population. Mechanisms underlying the recognized association between ecosystem health and human health remain poorly understood and responding appropriately to the ecological, social and economic conditions that facilitate disease emergence and transmission represents a substantial societal challenge. In the context of disease emergence from wildlife, wildlife and habitat should be conserved, which in turn will preserve vital ecosystem structure and function, which has broader implications for human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, while simultaneously minimizing the spillover of pathogens from wild animals into human beings. In this review, we propose a novel framework for the holistic and interdisciplinary investigation of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers, using the spillover of bat pathogens as a case study. This study has been developed to gain a detailed interdisciplinary understanding, and it combines cutting-edge perspectives from both natural and social sciences, linked to policy impacts on public health, land use and conservation

Experimental Lagos bat virus infection in straw-colored fruit bats: A suitable model for bat rabies in a natural reservoir species

Rabies is a fatal neurologic disease caused by lyssavirus infection. Bats are important natural reservoir hosts of various lyssaviruses that can be transmitted to people. The epidemiology and pathogenesis of rabies in bats are poorly understood, making it difficult to prevent zoonotic transmission. To further our understanding of lyssavirus pathogenesis in a natural bat host, an experimental model using straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) and Lagos bat virus, an endemic lyssavirus in this species, was developed. To determine the lowest viral dose resulting in 100% productive infection, bats in five groups (four bats per group) were inoculated intramuscularly with one of five doses, ranging from 100.1 to 104.1 median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50). More bats died due to the development of rabies after the middle dose (102.1 TCID50, 4/4 bats) than after lower (101.1, 2/4; 101.1, 2/4) or higher (103.1, 2/4; 104.1, 2/4) doses of virus. In the two highest dose groups, 4/8 bats developed rabies. Of those bats that remained healthy 3/4 bats seroconverted, suggesting that high antigen loads can trigger a strong immune response that abrogates a productive infection. In contrast, in the two lowest dose groups, 3/8 bats developed rabies, 1/8 remained healthy and seroconverted and 4/8 bats remained healthy and did not seroconvert, suggesting these doses are too low to reliably induce infection. The main lesion in all clinically affected bats was meningoencephalitis associated with lyssavirus-positive neurons. Lyssavirus antigen was detected in tongue epithelium (5/11 infected bats) rather than in salivary gland epithelium (0/11), suggesting viral excretion via the tongue. Thus, intramuscular inoculation of 102.1 TCID50 of Lagos bat virus into straw-colored fruit bats is a suitable m