Food safety on the agenda at FARA meeting on agriculture in Africa

Traders in beef and pork meat at the Xipamanine traditional market in Maputo, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, informal markets play an important role in supplying most of the meat, milk, eggs and fish that poor people depend on for their nourishment.

Informal markets are those where traditional processing and products predominate and where traders are often unlicensed and do not pay tax.

Examples include street food markets, milk hawking systems, wet markets for pork, backyard poultry systems and artisanal production of cheese and other fermented milk products.

Despite the important role of Africa’s informal food markets in providing nutrition, employment and income to millions of people, these markets are often not subject to effective health and safety regulation.

Several approaches to food safety in informal markets have focused on food-borne hazards, with a tendency to adopt stringent international food quality standards with little regard for local contexts.

On the other hand, risk-based approaches to food safety do not just consider the presence or absence of food-borne hazards, but go further to assess whether there are certain practices that can minimize the health risks presented by the hazards.

Take, for example, the case of raw milk which is often sold informally in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

It is well known that raw milk is a good medium for microbial growth and is prone to microbial spoilage if not cooled immediately after milking.

Pathogenic species like E. coli often occur naturally in raw milk. However, most consumers in Africa routinely boil milk before they drink it, a simple practice that effectively kills any milk-borne pathogens, thus rendering the milk safe to drink.

A hazard-based approach to food safety that focuses solely on the hazard (E. coli in raw milk) would quickly condemn the milk as ‘unsafe for human consumption’.

However, a risk-based approach that considers risk assessment (E. coli is present in raw milk and causes disease), risk management (boiling of raw milk) and risk communication (educating consumers to boil milk before drinking it) is more appropriate as it is based on evidence of potential harm and not perceptions.

The subject of food safety in informal markets in Africa will be among several topics to be discussed during a side event by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on the first day of the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week which takes place on 15-20 July 2013 in Accra, Ghana.

The topic of the ILRI side event is Livestock research for Africa’s food security.

ILRI veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace will speak on the topic of food safety and aflatoxins.

Aflatoxins are highly toxic metabolites produced by the mould Aspergillus flavus and known to cause suppression of the immune system, liver disease and death in both humans and animals.

Aspergillus can grow in a wide range of foods and feed and thrive under favourable growth conditions of high temperature and moisture content.

In Africa, aflatoxin contamination of cereals, groundnuts and dried fruits leads to an estimated annual loss to food exporters of 670 million US dollars.

Grace leads ILRI’s research program on food safety and zoonoses. She also leads the ‘agriculture-associated diseases’ theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Grace will address the following questions:

• What are risk-based approaches to food safety in informal markets where most of the poor buy and sell?
• How should we deal with food safety dynamics: livestock revolution, urbanization and globalization?
• How can we better understand the public health impacts of aflatoxins?

Other topics that will be discussed at the side event are

• vaccine biosciences;
• the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-ILRI hub;
• risk and vulnerability in drylands; and
• the biomass crisis in intensifying smallholder systems.

Read more about ILRI’s food safety projects in Africa

• Safe Food, Fair Food
• Capacity and action for aflatoxin reduction in eastern Africa
• Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins in maize and dairy products for poor consumers in Kenya

For more information about the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week, follow updates on the blog or the Twitter feed #AASW6.

 

New video gives overview of ILRI research on prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases

A new 3-minute video presents an overview of the work that the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is doing towards the prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases.

This is one of the key themes of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, which is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

This CGIAR Research Program was started in 2012 to investigate the links between agriculture, nutrition and health in poor nations.

The program aims at improving the nutritional and health benefits of the farming sector while mitigating the risks posed by diseases that are spread through food and water, as well as those that can be passed from animals to people (zoonotic diseases).

In addition to a focus on agriculture-associated diseases, it also carries out research on food value chains, biofortification, and integrated development policies and programs on agriculture, nutrition and health.

View the video, The prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases

The prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases from FILM for SCIENCE in AGRICULTURE on Vimeo.

You are welcome to share this video with research colleagues and partners or embed it in your PowerPoint/Prezi presentations on agriculture, nutrition, health and food safety.

 

Vietnam hosts pioneer training course in One Health and EcoHealth

A vendor weighs live chicken for sale in Hung Yen province, Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/Nguyen Ngoc Huyen).

The first ever short course on One Health and EcoHealth in Vietnam – hosted by the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER) at the Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) – took place on 27-30 May 2013 in Hanoi.

While Vietnam is a part of the EcoHealth network in the Southeast Asia region, no formal EcoHealth training program existed in the country before the launch of this course.

EcoHealth is an emerging, multi-disciplinary field of study that examines how ecosystem changes affect human health so as to prevent new diseases from emerging.

The participants were an international, multi-disciplinary and multi-sector group drawn from various countries across the globe, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, the United States of America and Vietnam.

The course, which was run by regionally based trainers, highlighted the conceptual framework of EcoHealth and One Health and its potential usefulness in advancing the agenda of public health. Specifically, activities generated from the workshop provided a chance to demonstrate how risk analysis can be used as a tool in developing strategies to prevent and control infectious diseases.

Through the introduction of concepts and didactic methods, application of case studies and participation in fieldwork, the course participants learned about the theory and major concepts of EcoHealth, and honed the skills necessary to apply the principles of One Health and EcoHealth in their respective fields of expertise.

Following the successful inception of One Health and EcoHealth training in Vietnam, CENPHER now plans to incorporate an EcoHealth course into a comprehensive and innovative public health training program. To do this, CENPHER will collaborate with various EcoHealth initiatives currently working in Southeast Asia, namely,

• the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)- funded project,  EcoHealth approaches to the better management of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases in the Southeast Asia region;
• the Ecohealth Field-Building Leadership Initiative in Southeast Asia; and
• two EcoHealth Resource Centres in Chiang Mai University, Thailand and Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.

Beyond the immediate successes of expanding the scope of EcoHealth concepts and applications, the community at HSPH and CENPHER hopes that the output of this workshop will mark the start of continued growth, sustained partnerships and lasting opportunities for collaborative learning.

 

IDRC and ILRI publish workshop report on global health research and practice

A women sells live ducklings in a ‘wet market’ in Indonesia (photo credit: ILRI/Christine Jost).

On 29 January 2013, Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) organized a half-day workshop at the 2013 Prince Mahidol Award Conference entitled Cross-sectoral collaboration for health and sustainability: a new agenda for generating and assessing research impact in the face of complexity.

This pre-conference workshop convened nearly 60 international researchers, practitioners, policymakers and representatives from donor agencies and international organizations to address two contemporary challenges in global health research and practice:

1. How do we measure and attribute the success and impact of integrated, transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research and interventions? Further, how do we effectively and coherently communicate these successes to key global health policymakers?
2. How can we integrate multiple lines of evidence and knowledge in order to achieve gains amongst a family of desired outcomes: the improvement of human and animal health, generation of impact for community members and policymakers, and the promotion of ecological and social sustainability?

The summary report of the workshop is now published, presenting the highlights and reflections which emerged from the workshop and its discussions.

“It is hoped that the key findings will enhance the proficiency of researchers to influence and impact regional and global health policy debates,” the authors say.

“Further, lessons from the workshop may inform priority setting for future research agendas in international One Health, EcoHealth and global health research.”

ILRI’s experiences in using EcoHealth approaches to better manage zoonoses in Southeast Asia took centre stage during a poster session at the 2013 Prince Mahidol Award Conference.

The conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 29 January to 2 February 2013.

 

New study links the rise of zoonotic diseases to intensive farming and environmental changes

Farmer Ma Thi Puong feeds her pigs on her farm near the northern town of Meo Vac, Vietnam. Intensification of livestock farming has been found to increase the risk of zoonotic disease transmission (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Modern farming practices, such as intensified livestock production, as well as environmental and biodiversity changes can be linked to the new wave of zoonotic diseases, according to a new study published in the 21 May 2013 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Human population growth and the expansion of agriculture to meet the ever-rising demand for food have been identified as the key drivers of recent outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases.

These human behavioural changes have led to encroachment of wildlife habitats, resulting in greater interactions between people, livestock and wildlife and increased chances of spillover of potential pathogens from wildlife to livestock and, consequently, people.

“Intensive livestock farming, especially of pigs and poultry, increases the risk of disease transmission due to increased population size and density,” the study reveals.

Environmental changes arising from settlement and agriculture, including land fragmentation, deforestation and replacement of natural vegetation with crops, alter the structure of wildlife population, giving rise to new environmental conditions that favour specific hosts, vectors and pathogens.

The study was carried out in form of a systematic review by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Royal Veterinary College, University of London.

The research team sought to analyze qualitatively scientific evidence on the effect of agricultural intensification and environmental change on the risk of zoonoses transmission at the interface of humans, livestock and wildlife.

While the study has identified a clear link between the threat of zoonotic disease and the wildlife-livestock interface, it does not adequately address the complex interactions between the environmental, social and biological drivers of pathogen emergence.

For this reason, there is need to carry out local interdisciplinary studies that can come up with locally relevant solutions to tackle the threat of emerging and re-emerging zoonoses, the authors conclude.

Delia Grace, veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert at ILRI, is among the co-authors of the study. Grace also leads the agriculture-associated diseases theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.

Read the full-text article

Citation: Jones BA, Grace D, Kock R, Alonso S, Rushton J, Said MY, McKeever D, Mutua F, Young J, McDermott J and Pfeiffer DU. 2013. Zoonosis emergence linked to agricultural intensification and environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 110(21): 8399-8404.

 

New publication on capacity development for wildlife health management

The 2012 annual scientific meeting of the Wildlife Disease Association featured a workshop on capacity development in wildlife health management.

The workshop consisted of presentations, table-top exercises and general discussion among over 60 participants from all over the world.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) was represented by Purvi Mehta-Bhatt, regional representative for South Asia, who gave a keynote presentation on capacity development in One Health and EcoHealth.

“Capacity development is an important pathway to achieving sustainable development. Limited capacity continues to be one of the most prominent hindrances to implementing projects in developing countries,” said Mehta-Bhatt.

“It is important to identify and leverage upon the role that different international, regional and local organizations can play in building capacities.”

ILRI’s research on One Health and EcoHealth is one of the key research activities within the prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.

Access the workshop report

Citation: Leighton F A, Valeix S, Wall R, and Polachek L. 2012. Capacity development for wildlife health management in low and middle income Countries: A Workshop Work Book. Wildlife Disease Association, Lawrence, KS, USA.

 

Meeting report published on plan for CGIAR collaborative research on mycotoxins

On 3-4 September 2012 participants from five CGIAR centres met at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi to share about their activities related to mycotoxin research and to plan how these different activities might work together within the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) mycotoxin research portfolio.

Representatives attended from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA),  the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and ILRI.

The meeting report is now published, highlighting the key issues, decisions and action points.

Download the meeting report.

 

Agriculture and health experts develop plan of action for aflatoxin control in Africa

Aflatoxin-contaminated groundnut kernels from Mozambique. The Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa has identified five priority strategic areas for action towards control of aflatoxins in Africa (photo credit: IITA).

Regional and international experts in agriculture, health, research and trade have drawn up a plan of action for the control of aflatoxins in Africa, following a strategy development workshop organized by the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa held on 10-12 April 2013 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“Control of aflatoxins is needed to achieve greater agricultural development, food security and improve health, particularly in Africa where contamination is widespread and often acute,” said Yemi Akinbamijo, head of the Agriculture and Food Security Division of the African Union Commission.

The workshop participants identified five priority strategic thematic areas for action:

• Research and technology for control of aflatoxins
• Legislation, policies and standards in the management of aflatoxin in Africa
• Growing commerce and trade while protecting lives from aflatoxins
• Enhancing capacity building on aflatoxin management, control and regulatory processes to ensure reduced exposure
• Public awareness, advocacy and communication

Aflatoxins are highly toxic metabolites produced by the mould Aspergillus flavus and known to cause suppression of the immune system, liver disease and death in both humans and animals.

Aspergillus can grow in a wide range of foods and feed and thrive under favourable growth conditions of high temperature and moisture content.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 25% of the world’s food crops are affected by aflatoxins, with countries in the tropics and subtropics at most risk.

Aflatoxin contamination can occur before crops are harvested when temperatures are high, during harvest if wet conditions occur and after harvest if there is insect damage to the stored crop or if moisture levels are high during storage and transportation.

In Africa, aflatoxin contamination of cereals, groundnuts and dried fruits leads to an estimated annual loss to food exporters of 670 million US dollars.

Among the over 110 experts who attended the strategy development workshop were three scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) involved in food safety research as part of the agriculture-associated diseases component of the CGIAR Research Program in Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH).

Benoit Gnonlonfin and Jagger Harvey of the ILRI-Biosciences eastern and central Africa hub are involved in a collaborative project, Capacity and Action for Aflatoxin Reduction in Africa, aimed at establishing a regional mycotoxin analytical platform with state-of-the-art diagnostic technology that will enable better detection and control of aflatoxin contamination in maize in Kenya and Tanzania.

Delia Grace is a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert and leads of ILRI’s Food Safety and Zoonoses Program as well as the agriculture-associated diseases component of A4NH.

Grace is involved in the project Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins for poor milk and maize producers and consumers in Kenya (MyDairy), which aims at improving food safety through reducing the risk of mycotoxins within the feed-dairy chain in Kenya.

The key aspects of the MyDairy project are:

• integrated risk and economic assessment of the Kenyan feed-dairy chain;
• investigation of technologies and strategies to reduce mycotoxins risk in the feed-dairy chain; and
• impact assessment of a package of post-harvest strategies for reducing aflatoxins in maize.

Erastus Kang’ethe, a meat and milk expert at the University of Nairobi, who also attended the workshop, is one of the partners in the MyDairy project.

Access the workshop documents and presentations

 

Keeping cows in the city, chickens under the bed: ‘The Atlantic’ magazine explores Africa’s urbanization

Delia Grace, food safety specialist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), is cited in this feature article on urban livestock farming and zoonoses in Dagoretti, Nairobi.

Research by Grace and colleagues found that peer pressure and targeted messages on hygienic livestock keeping work better to control the spread of cryptosporidiosis than banning the keeping of animals.

ILRI Clippings

Butcher shop in a slum in Kawangare, Nairobi, Kenya (picture on Flickr by Brad Ruggles).

It’s not only people who are rapidly urbanizing in Africa: people migrating from rural areas are bringing their livelihoods with them, which in Africa largely means their cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and pigs. A scientific report from researchers based in Nairobi, Kenya, investigating the benefits and harms of livestock keeping in two of Africa’s most crowded and sprawling cities —Nairobi and Ibadan — recommends that people ‘keep on keeping cows’ but keep them more carefully so as to reduce the risk of diseases being transmitted from livestock to people.

Importantly, the study also finds that  peer pressure — not health codes — is the answer to more careful management of the growing livestock enterprises in Africa’s slums and urban centres.

The Atlantic, one of North America’s most popular and distinguished cultural and political magazines, explores this…

View original post 652 more words

 

Safe Food, Fair Food project provides tools to assess food safety along value chains

Fish on sale at a market in Cairo, Egypt (photo credit: WorldFish/Samuel Stacey).

A comprehensive toolkit developed by the Safe Food, Fair Food project is being used by WorldFish, a member of the CGIAR Consortium, to assess food safety in the farmed tilapia value chain in Egypt.

WorldFish is using the toolkit in a collaborative project on Rapid Integrated Assessment of Food Safety and Nutrition in Value Chains to better understand the dual demands of safety and nutrition in food value chains, in particular the farmed tilapia value chain.

Through the combined use of participatory methods of data collection (e.g. focus group discussions and direct observation) and collection of biological samples, the toolkit provides a thorough framework for assessing the entire food value chain.

It takes into account economic, social and cultural factors that influence food affordability and acceptability, as well as how the attitudes of value chain actors can contribute to risky food practices.

The toolkit has also been used to assess the milk value chain in Tanzania, small ruminant value chain in Ethiopia and pig value chains in Uganda and Vietnam.

For more information about the toolkit, please contact the Safe Food, Fair Food project coordinator Kristina Roesel (k.roesel @ cgiar.org)