Prioritizing smallholder animal health needs in East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia using three approaches: Literature review, expert workshops, and practitioner surveys

Highlights • Literature review constraints included FMD, parasites, brucellosis, and PPR.• Expert workshops added CCPP, CBPP, mastitis, and reproductive disorders.• Most constraints manageable with existing technologies / best husbandry practices.• Systemic challenges limit livestock keepers’ access to vet services and inputs.


Frequency of mention (impact articles)
Main topic of green rank article  Newcastle disease Impact: Intervention increased vaccination rates for ND to over 75% uptake in all areas, reaching 98% in India. In all areas flock sizes doubled, the numbers of eggs that were set for hatching and that hatched increased by 25-50% and there was an increase in the frequency with which chicken meat was consumed and chickens were sold. The increases in production after increasing vaccination coverage reflect the high impact of ND in the project areas.  Country review of commercial and smallholder poultry in Tanzania.
• The diseases most prevalent in commercial poultry farms are ND, infectious bursal disease (IBD/Gumboro disease), Fowl pox, Marek's disease, Salmonellosis, colibacillosis and mycoplasmosis. • ND is the major constraint to local poultry development. • Other diseases mentioned to limit local poultry development in order of importance were coughing/sneezing (Infectious coryza), fowl pox, mites, ticks, and fleas (Msami, 2000). Experience in Tanzania has shown that other diseases become more important in the longer term after ND is controlled. • It is estimated that in Tanzania 30 -80% of the 32,559,208 village chickens die annually from ND. Village chickens sell for around USD 2.00 to 3.00 per bird. At a 30% mortality rate the minimum direct annual cost of uncontrolled ND is 19.5 million USD. At 80% mortality, the maximum loss is in the order of 78.1 million USD. A household survey with a contingent valuation activity administered to 535 smallholder households across six villages in Arusha, Singida, and Mbeya regions of Tanzania to learn about willingness to pay for Newcastle disease vaccines for indigenous/ local chickens.
• 91% of households believed they had seen NDV in their flock at some time.
• 77% of all households reported mortality of a third or more of their chickens within the last six months. • 89% of these households believed NDV was the cause of mortality (356/400 households). • The willingness to pay (WTP) estimate was 5853 Tanzanian shillings ($2.64) to vaccinate ten chickens given the vaccine was protective for a period of three months. • This estimate is about twice the market price reported by households in the study areas suggesting chicken-owning households value and benefit from NDV vaccines, but face other barriers to vaccination.

Development, 25(161).
Cross-sectional study with questionnaire administered to 180 households across four districts in Ethiopia (sampling strategy not specified further).
• Newcastle disease was acknowledged as the biggest constraint of family chicken production. • Poultry disease (46.2%) and predation (27.1%) were claimed to be predominant causes of chicken loss. Cross-sectional questionnaire administered to 384 smallholder households in Morogoro region of Tanzania to assess effect of an intervention to deliver Newcastle disease vaccines and sensitize farmers.
• Intervention increased vaccination rates for ND to over 75% uptake in all areas, reaching 98% in India. In all areas flock sizes doubled, the numbers of eggs that were set for hatching and that hatched increased by 25-50% and there was an increase in the frequency with which chicken meat was consumed and chickens were sold. • The increases in production after increasing vaccination coverage reflect the high impact of ND in the project areas.

Meskerem, A. (2017). Major health constraints and ethno-veterinary practices of small scale and backyard chicken production in some selected regions of Ethiopia. Revue De Medecine Veterinaire, 168(1-3), 63-71.
Questionnaire administered to 162 smallholder households in 5 regions of Ethiopia in a crosssectional survey designed to learn about major health constraints in poultry production.
• The overall frequency of diseases reported as the main health constraint affecting chicken production in the study areas were, Newcastle disease (64%), followed by gastro intestinal infection (34%), respiratory syndrome (22%), internal and external parasites (16%), coccidiosis (15%) and fowl pox (5%). A household survey administered to 535 smallholder households across six villages in Arusha, Singida, and Mbeya regions of Tanzania to learn about adoption of Newcastle disease vaccines for indigenous/ local chickens.
• 80% of households were aware of ND vaccines.
• 57% had previously vaccinated and 26% recently vaccinated within four months.
• Knowing someone who vaccinated increased the odds of a household previously vaccinating. • Larger flock size was associated with higher odds of previous vaccination.
• Usage of traditional medicine to treat or prevent ND decreased the odds of previously vaccination. • The median apparent annual ND incidence rate (the number of new cases per population at risk) for the study period 1989-2014 was calculated to be 0.48%. • Livestock disease control programs implemented in this region through major economic policies that existed from 1989 to 2014 probably had little impact on ND trends. Furthermore, the ND control strategies implemented during this period seem to have failed to halt the spread of the disease from affected districts to those that were previously ND free. Study used participatory rural appraisal methods to investigate the constraints facing both backyard and semi-intensive chicken farmers in and around Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, with a focus on the disease problems, farmers' perceptions regarding disease risk factors and the biosecur ity measures in place on these farms. Sample size of 41 smallholders and 30 small commercial producers.

Sambo
• Newcastle disease was the most frequently identified disease problem causing bird mortality for both types of farmers. • Semi-intensive and backyard farmers believe that a number of other non-specific syndromes and specific pathogens are impacting chicken productivity and mortality, including diarrhoea, chronic respiratory diseases, pasteurellosis and fowl pox.
• Some potentially significant diseases, such as Marek's disease and infectious bursal disease, were not mentioned, although outbreaks of these are known to have occurred on commercial farms in Ethiopia, including in Debre Zeit, in recent years. • Key finding of the study was the limited access to veterinary services reported by both semi-intensive and backyard producers. • Poultry vaccines were reported by some respondents to be only intermittently available and then only in inappropriate volumes. • There was widespread use of ethnoveterinary medicine by both groups of producers, although their use appeared somewhat more common among backyard producers • Poor quality and cost of feed was an important production constraint to farmers in this study, especially for semi-intensive producers. Comprehensive report/ review hybrid with serosurvey results from a four-year project called Chicken Health for Development (CH4D) project. Sample size/ sampling strategy for serosurveys not always described fully but most findings described further in published articles.

Habte
• ND is primarily an epidemic disease in Ethiopia with outbreaks causing high mortality, but with low levels between disease outbreaks. Seroprevalence reports range from 0.5% (Jarso, n=615) to 64.1% (Amhara, 2015, n = 729). • IBD is endemic in most parts of Ethiopia. Authors report seroprevalence of 5.1% in Horro (n=604) and 2.1% in Jarso (n = 604), much lower than seroprevalences ranging from 51-94% from studies focused on outbreaks. • Marek's disease virus has not previously been reported in village chickens in Ethiopia.
20-30% of birds were seropositive indicating the disease is endemic and circulating in villages. • Fowl pox is endemic in poultry in Ethiopia, mainly observed in commercial farms and among exotic chickens kept under a scavenging system. • Fowl typhoid: Seroprevalence rates of between 75-90% for Salmonella; much higher than rates of around 40% previously recorded. A small number of birds had very high antibody levels which may reflect carrier birds within flocks. • Fowl cholera: Seroprevalence rates of between 80-90% for Pasteurella -higher than rates of around 65% previously recorded. This suggests Fowl cholera is a larger endemic problem than reported and the acute form may contribute to mortality. • Coccidiosis: Eimeria oocysts (eggs) found in around 55% of faecal samples examined. All seven Eimeria species were found, in some cases more than one in an individual bird. Generally, the numbers of eggs were low. In most cases, we believe Eimeria is a problem leading to reduced productivity and increased susceptibility to other infections.