Productivity loss and cost of bovine tuberculosis for the dairy livestock sector in Ethiopia

Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is endemic in Ethiopia. Although upgraded dairy cattle account for only 1% of the total cattle population, they are the backbone of the marketed milk production in the country. Supported by research data outputs from three years, we report in this paper an estimate of the productivity loss and cost of BTB to the Ethiopian dairy sector in two dairy settings, the urban production system in Central Ethiopia (model 1) and the national upgraded dairy production (model 2). Primary data sources were used (e.g. market survey; three-year longitudinal productivity survey; abattoir survey) as well as secondary data sources. A matrix population model, composed of a population vector representing the herd composition that is repeatedly multiplied with a projection matrix, was developed to simulate the livestock dairy population. The initial herd structure was simulated over 30 years to obtain an equilibrium herd-structure representing an Eigenvector of the projection matrix. We performed an incremental cost of disease analysis by comparing livestock production with and without BTB during a period of 10 years. We assumed a BTB prevalence of 40%. In year ten, the Net present value (NPV) of livestock production in terms of milk, meat and hides was estimated at 154.5 million USD for model 1 and 1.7 billion USD for model 2. Loss of NPV over 10 years was estimated at 12 million USD for model 1 and 131.7 million USD for model 2, representing roughly 7.3% loss in NPV or 219 USD per animal. This is a benchmark against which a national TB control program could be developed in the future to calculate its benefit/cost ratio

Global burden of human brucellosis : a systematic review of disease frequency

BACKGROUND: This report presents a systematic review of scientific literature published between 1990-2010 relating to the frequency of human brucellosis, commissioned by WHO. The objectives were to identify high quality disease incidence data to complement existing knowledge of the global disease burden and, ultimately, to contribute towards the calculation of a Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) estimate for brucellosis.METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Thirty three databases were searched, identifying 2,385 articles relating to human brucellosis. Based on strict screening criteria, 60 studies were selected for quality assessment, of which only 29 were of sufficient quality for data analysis. Data were only available from 15 countries in the regions of Northern Africa and Middle East, Western Europe, Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia. Half of the studies presented incidence data, six of which were longitudinal prospective studies, and half presented seroprevalence data which were converted to incidence rates. Brucellosis incidence varied widely between, and within, countries. Although study biases cannot be ruled out, demographic, occupational, and socioeconomic factors likely play a role. Aggregated data at national or regional levels do not capture these complexities of disease dynamics and, consequently, at-risk populations or areas may be overlooked. In many brucellosis-endemic countries, health systems are weak and passively-acquired official data underestimate the true disease burden.CONCLUSIONS: High quality research is essential for an accurate assessment of disease burden, particularly in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Central and South America and Africa where data are lacking. Providing formal epidemiological and statistical training to researchers is essential for improving study quality. An integrated approach to disease surveillance involving both human health and veterinary services would allow a better understand of disease dynamics at the animal-human interface, as well as a more cost-effective utilisation of resources

Access to vaccination services for priority ruminant livestock diseases in Ghana: barriers and determinants of service utilization by farmers

INTRODUCTION: Livestock diseases are a major constraint to agricultural productivity, frequently causing significant livelihood losses for farmers, and negatively affecting public food safety and security. Vaccines provide an effective and profitable means for controlling most infectious livestock diseases, but remain underutilized. This study sought to assess the barriers and determinants of vaccination utilization for priority livestock diseases in Ghana. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method study involving a quantitative survey with ruminant livestock farmers (N = 350) and seven focus group discussions (FGD) involving 65 ruminant livestock farmers. The survey data were analyzed, and distribution of barriers to vaccination access described. We evaluated the determinants of vaccination utilization (any use of vaccination against contagious-bovine-pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and peste-des-petits-ruminants (PPR) in 2021) using logistic regression analyses at the 0.05 significance level. FGD transcripts were analyzed deductively. We used triangulation to achieve convergence across the different datasets and analyses. RESULTS: The farmers kept an average (median) of 5 tropical livestock units (TLUs) of ruminant livestock (IQR=2.6-12.0) that were on average 8 kilometers (IQR=1.9-12.4) away from veterinary officers (VOs). Only 16% (56/350) of herds were vaccinated against the diseases. Most farmers (274/350) had limited knowledge on vaccines against CBPP and PPR infections, 63% (222/350) perceived low risk of these diseases to their herds. About half of farmers reported experiencing outbreaks of either disease in the study year (2021). Farmers scored on average 80.5 out of 98 (IQR=74-85) on the RS-14 resilience scale. After adjusting for farmers' livestock rearing experience, herd size, sex, wealth status, distance to VOs, previous disease outbreaks, and perceived risk of the diseases, vaccination utilization was negatively associated with limited knowledge (aOR=0.19, 95%CI=0.08-0.43), and positively associated with personal exposure to outbreaks in the study year (aOR=5.26, 95%CI=2.01-13.7) and increasing resilience (aOR=1.13, 95%CI=1.07-1.19). FGDs revealed farmer misconceptions about vaccines, costs of vaccines, and timely access to vaccines from VOs as additional barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Acceptability, affordability, accessibility, and availability of vaccine services represent the main barriers to vaccines utilization by ruminant livestock farmers in Ghana. Given that limited knowledge regarding the value of vaccination and shortfalls in veterinary service supply are of central importance for both the demand and supply side, more collaboration between the different stakeholders in a transdisciplinary manner to effectively address the low vaccination utilization problem is needed

Transmission Dynamics of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza at Lake Constance (Europe) During the Outbreak of Winter 2005-2006

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) H5N1 poses a serious threat to domestic animals. Despite the large number of studies on influenza A virus in waterbirds, little is still known about the transmission dynamics, including prevalence, behavior, and spread of these viruses in the wild waterbird population. From January to April 2006, the HPAI H5N1 virus was confirmed in 82 dead wild waterbirds at the shores of Lake Constance. In this study, we present simple mathematical models to examine this outbreak and to investigate the transmission dynamics of HPAI in wild waterbirds. The population dynamics model of wintering birds was best represented by a sinusoidal function. This model was considered the most adequate to represent the susceptible compartment of the SIR model. The three transmission models predict a basic reproduction ratio (R 0) with value of approximately 1.6, indicating a small epidemic, which ended with the migration of susceptible wild waterbirds at the end of the winter. With this study, we quantify for the first time the transmission of HPAI H5N1 virus at Lake Constance during the outbreak of winter 2005-2006. It is a step toward the improvement of the knowledge of transmission of the virus among wild waterbird

The influence of human interaction on guinea pigs: behavioral and thermographic changes during animal-assisted therapy

Guinea pigs are often involved in animal-assisted therapy (AAT) but there is little knowledge about the effects of human contact on guinea pigs involved in AAT. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of availability of a retreat, presence of conspecifics, prior experience with AAT, and human interaction on indicators of welfare in guinea pigs involved in AAT. Guinea pigs of both sexes and different ages (n=20) were assigned to a randomized, controlled within-subject trial with repeated measurements. Each guinea pig was tested in four settings: (I) therapy with retreat possibility with conspecifics, (II) therapy with retreat possibility without conspecifics, (III) therapy without retreat possibility, and (IV) setting without human interaction. We measured changes in eye temperature, as a proxy to infer stress levels, at 5-s intervals with a thermographic camera. All sessions were video recorded and the guinea pigs' behavior was coded using continuous recording and focal animal sampling. For the statistical analysis we used generalized linear mixed models, with therapy setting as a fixed effect and individual guinea pig as a random effect. We observed a temperature increase relative to baseline in settings (I) therapy with retreat with conspecifics present and (III) therapy without retreat. The percentage of time a guinea pig was petted was positively correlated with a rise in the eye temperature independent of the setting. Time spent eating was reduced in all therapy settings (I-III) compared to the setting without HAI (human animal interaction) (IV). In the setting with retreat (I), guinea pigs showed more active behaviors such as locomotive behavior or startling compared to the setting without retreat (III) and the setting without HAI (IV). When no retreat was available (III), they showed more passive behaviors, such as standing still or freezing compared to therapy with retreat (I). Based on our results we identified the behaviors "reduced eating", "increased startle" and "increased freezing" as indicators of an increased stress level. Petting the guinea pigs was correlated with a rise in the eye temperature and might be a factor which can cause stress. Our results support the suggestion that guinea pigs involved in AAT should have a retreat possibility, should have access to conspecifics, and should be given time to adapt to a new setting. In this way, stress might be reduced

Transmission Dynamics of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza at Lake Constance (Europe) During the Outbreak of Winter 2005–2006

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) H5N1 poses a serious threat to domestic animals. Despite the large number of studies on influenza A virus in waterbirds, little is still known about the transmission dynamics, including prevalence, behavior, and spread of these viruses in the wild waterbird population. From January to April 2006, the HPAI H5N1 virus was confirmed in 82 dead wild waterbirds at the shores of Lake Constance. In this study, we present simple mathematical models to examine this outbreak and to investigate the transmission dynamics of HPAI in wild waterbirds. The population dynamics model of wintering birds was best represented by a sinusoidal function. This model was considered the most adequate to represent the susceptible compartment of the SIR model. The three transmission models predict a basic reproduction ratio (R0) with value of approximately 1.6, indicating a small epidemic, which ended with the migration of susceptible wild waterbirds at the end of the winter. With this study, we quantify for the first time the transmission of HPAI H5N1 virus at Lake Constance during the outbreak of winter 2005–2006. It is a step toward the improvement of the knowledge of transmission of the virus among wild waterbirds

Valeur ajoutée de la participation à l'analyse des risques des produits d'origine animale vendus dans le secteur informel

La sécurité sanitaire des aliments est devenue, durant les deux dernières décennies, une préoccupation majeure des consommateurs, des autres acteurs des filières agro-alimentaires et des décideurs. Cela est le résultat d’un regard plus attentionné sur la qualité des aliments à la suite des différentes crises et intoxications alimentaires ayant engendré en plus des souffrances, des pertes en vies humaines. Les mesures de contrôle des risques sanitaires sont encore insuffisantes du fait de la non maîtrise des facteurs de risques et de la complexité dans l’application de la méthode classique d’épidémiologie quantitative d’analyse de risques dans la chaîne de valeur alimentaire. Par ailleurs, ces analyses des risques se limitent au stade initial d’identification du danger. En s’appuyant sur des études de cas réalisées en Afrique subsaharienne au niveau du secteur informel du lait et de la viande et fruits de mer (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopie, Mali et Nigeria), nous démontrons que la participation des acteurs et la prise en compte de leurs connaissances peuvent contribuer à une analyse mieux élaborée des risques alimentaires. Les approches participative et transdisciplinaire se révèlent être d’une grande efficacité dans la collecte d’importantes données qualitatives complexes pour expliquer les données biologiques quantitatives (exposition, dose-effet). Elle pourrait permettre par une association de plusieurs techniques de collecte des données (enquête par questionnaire, Méthode Accélérée de Recherche Participative (MARP) et Focus Group Discussion), de réduire les coûts de l’analyse du risque et de mieux préciser le risque pour les prises de décisions pertinentes dans le secteur informel des denrées alimentaires d’origine animale Food safety has become over the last two decades a major concern for consumers and other stakeholders in food value-chain, as well as decision makers. This has resulted in more attention on quality, augmented by various recent food poisoning crises and resultant suffering and human life losses. The control measures of health risks remain inadequate due to the complexity of applying classical quantitative epidemiology on risk analysis in the food value-chain. Furthermore, risk analysis is still limited to the initial stages of hazard identification. Based on case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa in the informal sector of milk, meat and see food (Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mali and Nigeria), we demonstrate that stakeholder participation and incorporation of their knowledge are likely to contribute to a more sophisticated risk analysis. We position participation and transdisciplinarity as effective approaches for collecting important and complex qualitative data to explain quantitative biological data (exposure, dose-response). They could contribute in bringing together different data collection techniques (e.g. questionnaire survey, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and focus group discussion) to reduce the cost of risk analysis and also to provide broader evidence for decision making in the animal source food informal sector

Effectiveness and profitability of preventive veterinary interventions in controlling infectious diseases of ruminant livestock in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review

Agriculture in general, and livestock production in particular, serve as a livelihood source for many people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In many settings, lack of control of infectious diseases hampers livestock productivity, undermining the livelihood of rural populations. This scoping review sought to identify veterinary interventions previously evaluated as well as their relative effectiveness in controlling infectious livestock diseases. To be included, papers had to be written in English, German or French, and had to describe the effectiveness and/or profitability of preventive veterinary intervention(s) against anthrax, blackleg, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, goat pox, lumpy skin disease, pasteurellosis, peste des petits ruminants, and/or sheep pox in any SSA country. Of the 2748 publications initially screened, 84 met our inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Most of the studies (n = 73, 87%) evaluated the effectiveness and/or profitability of vaccination, applied exclusively, applied jointly with, or compared to strategies like deworming, antimicrobial treatment, surveillance, feed supplementation, culling and dipping in reducing morbidity and/or mortality to livestock diseases. The effectiveness and/or profitability of antimicrobial treatment (n = 5), test and slaughter (n = 5), and use of lay animal health workers (n = 1) applied exclusively, were evaluated in the other studies. Vaccination was largely found to be both effective and with positive return on investment. Ineffective vaccination was mainly due to loss of vaccine potency under unfavorable field conditions like adverse weather events, cold chain failure, and mismatch of circulating pathogen strain and the vaccines in use.In summary, vaccination is the most effective and profitable means of controlling infectious livestock diseases in SSA. However, to achieve effective control of these diseases, its implementation must integrate pathogen surveillance, and optimal vaccine delivery tools, to overcome the reported field challenges

Priority themes for swiss sustainability research

With this report, the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences contribute to achieving the SDGs: With a view to meeting Switzerland‘s commitments under the 2030 Agenda as a whole, it identifies our country‘s most urgent research needs