Southern Africa Newcastle Disease Control Project (SANDCP)
- update
April - September
2004
Update from Robyn Alders, Team Leader, SANDCP
Maputo, Mozambique, E-mail: robyn@tropical.co.mz
As usual, project staff and partners have been working hard to ensure that ND control activities in rural areas of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania are well established by the end of the project in June 2005. We are grateful for the interest and good humour of all who have assisted with:
The Third Project Coordinating Committee Meeting held in Lilongwe, Malawi, which brought together representatives from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, AusAID and GRM International;
The mid-term review of the project by external consultants in April;
The I-2 ND laboratory vaccine trial that was successfully completed in Malawi in June and the vaccine field trial that commenced in July; ;
The training of extension workers and community vaccinators in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania;
Two more ND vaccination campaigns that were conducted in project areas in Mozambique and Tanzania;
The 2004 – 2005 Annual Plan that was approved by AusAID in June;
The monitoring and evaluation of ND control activities;
The annual national planning workshop that was held in Malawi;
The change over of Country Coordinators in Tanzania;
Coordination meetings with partners in Gaza, Inhambane and Tete Provinces in Mozambique;
The visit to project offices in Malawi and Tanzania by Ms Olga Reina, the SANDCP Regional Office Manager;
Short-term advisor inputs - by Mr Eduardo Carvalho (SAL Consultoria, reviewing cost-recovery activities) and Dr Christine Ahlers (poultry expert) in Mozambique and Tanzania, and by Dr Ian Morgan (veterinary epidemiologist) in all three countries;
Visits to the project by Dr George Mukiibi-Muka and Ms Rita Mwase from Uganda and Mr Pride Magwali of the Catholic Relief Services in Zimbabwe;
Dr Harun's (Deputy Team Leader) participation in the 5 th Asia Pacific Poultry Health Conference held at the Gold Coast, Australia, in April and the FAO/IAEA Forth Co-ordination Meeting of the FAO/IAEA Co-ordination Research Programme on the ‘Assessment of the effectiveness of vaccination strategies against Newcastle Disease and Gumboro Disease using immunoassay-based technologies for increasing backyard poultry production in Africa' held in Vienna, Austria, in May; and;
My participation in the World's Poultry Congress in Turkey during June that was kindly funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
Dr Wambura, Our Country Coordinator in Tanzania, has accepted a lecturing position at the Sokoine University of Agriculture and as we wish him well in his new job, we also welcome Dr Msami as our new Tanzanian Coordinator. Project staff continue to enjoy receiving e-mails from colleagues working with village poultry in many parts of the world and we hope that this exchange of ideas will continue.
SANDCP is funded by the Australian Agency
for International Development (AUSAID).
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Informative Links
on Southern Africa Newcastle Disease Control Project (SANDCP):
The Southern Africa Newcastle Disease Control project
goal is to assist the Governments of Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania
to improve rural food security and improve livelihoods of the rural
poor. The project will work towards:
Strengthening
the capability of, and relationship between, stakeholders in order to
successfully implement Newcastle Disease (ND) control programs in Mozambique,
Tanzania and Malawi; and
Achieving
a decrease in chicken mortality rates caused by ND in project activity
areas.
There are four components to the project:
Strengthening
Community approaches;
Vaccine
Production;
Training
and Extension at all levels; and
Project
Management.
Village chickens in each of the three countries for
which this project has been designed (Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi)
are the most significant livestock species in terms of levels of ownership,
access to animal protein, and the potential for earning cash income.
Village chickens are generally owned and managed by women and the rural
poor, and are usually run under a free-range, low input management system.
The principal problem for low input management systems
is that strategies for disease control are mostly absent. ND is the
most catastrophic disease, yet thermostable vaccines, notably I-2, can
be manufactured in-country and are cheap to manufacture and to supply
to village poultry owners. They are also simple to administer. Whilst
the technology exists to assist rural poultry producers, the challenge
for this project is to educate stakeholders about the use of the vaccine,
and to set up a sustainable manufacturing and distribution network to
those areas where it is most needed.
This project follows on from and expands upon the ACIAR/National
Veterinary Research Institute of Mozambique (INIVE) ND Control project,
which ran from 1996 to 2001. The project demonstrated the effectiveness
of the I-2 vaccine under field conditions; developed and produced a
comprehensive extension package; and supported vaccination campaigns
undertaken by government agencies and NGOs. The vaccination campaigns
using the I-2 vaccine have been conducted in trial zones since March
1999 and are still continuing today in an increasing number of districts.
Implementation of the project is the responsibility
of GRM International as the Australian Managing Contractor, in association
with Uniquest. GRM takes full responsibility for management of the project,
including management of all operational and financial aspects, contracting
personnel, mobilisation, logistics and reporting as well as managing
and coordinating the delivery of technical services and project support.
If you would like more information on the project,
please contact
m-francew@kyeemafoundation.org
