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…

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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)

 

ILRI project surveys aflatoxin risk in the feed-dairy chain in Kenya

ILRI graduate fellow Taishi Kayano collects milk samples from a Kenyan dairy farm as part of a qualitative survey on aflatoxins in the dairy chain in Kenya. (photo credit: ILRI/Taishi Kayano).

In January 2013, an international, multidisciplinary team of five upcoming researchers undertook a scoping survey of aflatoxins in the feed-dairy chain in Kenya as part of activities of the project, “Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins in maize and dairy products for poor consumers in Kenya” (MyDairy project).

The team comprised Kenyan PhD students Anima Sirma and Daniel Senerwa, American intern Calvin Pohl, Japanese veterinary student Taishi Kayano and Kenyan postdoctoral scientist Teresa Kiama.

They visited nine districts and 27 villages in rural Kenya where they led participatory rapid appraisals on dairying and aflatoxins and held focus group discussions with women dairy farmers.

In addition, all the communities visited were given information and training on safe handling and storage of milk and animal feed.

The qualitative part of the survey collected data on the type of feeds, milk yield and the storage period for milk and feed, among other variables.

Samples of milk and feed were also collected for laboratory analysis to investigate the association between the condition of cattle and the prevalence of aflatoxin in milk.

The results of the qualitative survey are being analyzed but preliminary findings show that the surveyed farmers use a variety of feeding practices for their dairy cattle and most of the milk is marketed in the informal sector as raw, unprocessed milk.

Recalling his field research experience as an ILRI graduate fellow, Kayano had this to say:

“I visited farmers with livestock officers or chiefs in the districts. Without their help, I wouldn’t have been able to get meet the local farmers and collect the milk and feed samples.

“They also helped to identify the precise locations of the dairy farms; this was very useful as there are no detailed maps of dairy farms.

“The livestock officers also translated our questionnaires from English to Kiswahili which was a key step in acquiring the data needed for the study.

“An internship at ILRI is a really good opportunity for students who would like to work on a short-term basis in an international research institution and to experience doing research in a developing country context.”

Read more about the MyDairy project

 

Tracking of free range domestic pigs in western Kenya provides new insights into dynamics of disease transmission

Typical mixed crop-livestock farming of western Kenya. Many smallholder farmers in western Kenya are taking advantage of the growing demand for pork to keep free-ranging pigs as a commercial enterprise (photo credit: ILRI/Pye-Smith).

Many people are familiar with the use of global positioning system (GPS) technology as a security measure to track the movement of vehicles, mobile phones and sophisticated high-tech gadgets and assets.

But researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the International Livestock Research Institute are using GPS technology to track the movement of a different kind of asset that, though not motorized or electronic, is nonetheless of great value to resource-poor farmers in rural western Kenya: free-ranging domestic pigs.

In western Kenya, as in many parts of the developing world, rural households keep pigs under extensive, low-input systems where the animals are left free to roam and scavenge food outside the homestead.

Such low capital investment production systems enable smallholder farmers to benefit from pig production by taking advantage of the growing demand for pork, especially in urban areas.

It is well known that irrespective of the production system under which they are kept, pigs can be the host of a variety of disease-causing microorganisms.

However, pigs that are left to roam freely and scavenge food have a much higher risk of picking up diseases and infections like the pork tapeworm and African swine fever and passing them on to other domestic and wild animals as well as to people.

Understanding the movement patterns of free-ranging pigs in a rural setting can help animal health researchers develop effective disease control policies for smallholder pig production systems, based on a better understanding of the patterns of disease transmission within populations of free range pigs.

The results of a year-long pig tracking study carried out in Busia, western Kenya between March 2011 and February 2012 are now available in the March 2013 issue of the open access journal BMC Veterinary Research.

The pigs were fitted with GPS collars that tracked their movements and recorded their location coordinates every 3 minutes for one week. The location data were then transmitted to a central GPS server for analysis. Blood samples were also collected from the pigs to check for infection with gastrointestinal parasites.

“This is the first study to use GPS technology to collect data on the home range of domestic pigs kept under a free range system and the data will give us new insights into the behaviour of free-ranging pigs in a resource-poor setting,” the authors say.

The study found that the free-ranging pigs spent almost half their time outside their homestead of origin, travelling an average of 4,340 metres in a 12 hour period.

This result shows that with respect to pathogen transmission, the village environment beyond the farm matters just as much as the environment on the farm itself.

In addition, the researchers found that free range domestic pigs spend a lot of energy while foraging and this reduced their potential for weight gain and economic benefit to their owners.

This is because the sale price is normally pegged on the live weight of the pigs: a heavier pig translates into more cash for the farmer.

“The movement data can also be combined with information on ration formulation and daily weight gain to provide farmers with advice on how to change their animal husbandry practices to improve the profitability of pig production,” the authors conclude.

Read the abstract here

Citation: Thomas LF, de Glanville WA, Cook EA and Fèvre EM. 2013. The spatial ecology of free-ranging domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) in western Kenya. BMC Veterinary Research 9: 46. doi:10.1186/1746-6148-9-46

Find out more about the Zoonotic and Emerging Diseases Research Group which is led by co-author Eric Fèvre.

 

ILRI project on ecohealth featured at the 2013 Prince Mahidol Award Conference

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

The experiences of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in using One Health and EcoHealth approaches to better manage emerging zoonoses were featured during a poster session at the 2013 Prince Mahidol Award Conference that was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 29 January to 2 February 2013. The theme of the conference was: “A world united against infectious diseases: Cross-sectoral solutions”.

ILRI scientists Jeffrey Gilbert and Rainer Assé presented two research posters from the project, Ecosystem approaches to the better management of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases in the Southeast Asia Region.

The project works with trans-disciplinary teams from governments, non-governmental organizations and universities in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to increase the capacity of researchers and animal disease control personnel to understand the risks and impacts of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases and best practice options to better manage the diseases.

View the posters below.

The added value of an ecohealth approach for the prevention and control of emerging zoonotic diseases by Jeffrey Gilbert

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Examining the socioecology of zoonotic diseases: Ecohealth experiences in Southeast Asia by Rainer Assé, Korapin Tohtubtiang, Jeffrey Gilbert and Delia Grace

 

CGIAR takes centre stage at international conference on innovations and incentives for agricultural research

Celeste Sitoe, a smallholder farmer in Lhate Village, Chokwe, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

The research priorities and value chain master plan of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) were among the topics discussed at an international conference on innovations and incentives in agricultural research for development, the proceedings of which have just been published online.

Delia Grace, who leads the food safety and zoonoses program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the agriculture-associated diseases component of A4NH, gave two presentations at the third annual Agricultural Research for Development conference which took place on 26-27 September 2012 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

In addition to keynote addresses, the conference held parallel sessions that featured the work of several CGIAR Research Programs.

Grace’s first presentation highlighted the synergies between A4NH and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

Research by the Livestock and Fish program adopts a ‘whole value chain’ approach and is targeted at selected animal-source food value chains with the aim of achieving impact at scale.

The A4NH value chain master plan is premised on four assumptions or hypotheses:

• Nutrient-dense foods in basic diets can have important outcomes
• Informal markets are most important and require risk- and incentive-based approaches
• CGIAR research can work effectively at the demand side
• CGIAR research has potential for consumer education and health

The second presentation focused on innovations and incentives in agricultural research for poor countries and highlighted two cases studies: an innovation that failed (community-based tsetse control in West Africa) and one that succeeded (training of informal sector milk traders in Kenya).

One of the key lessons from the case studies was that while innovations are the lever, incentives are central and value chain actors need to capture visible benefits.

Access the conference proceedings

About the Agricultural Research for Development conference
Agricultural Research for Development is the name of the annual multi/inter-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder conference on agriculture, livestock and forest research in an international development context.

It is organized by four networks: the Swedish Research Network – Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry for Development (Agri4D), the Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative (SIANI), the Forest, Climate & Livelihood Research Network (Focali) and Future Agriculture.

 

ILRI presents at international workshop on pandemic flu controversies

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

On 10–11 January 2013, over 50 international experts from science, policy, the media and academia met at Sussex University for a workshop to discuss what recent controversies can teach us about possible future responses to pandemic influenza outbreaks.

The workshop, convened by the Economic & Social Research Council STEPS Centre and the Centre for Global Health Policy, examined in depth why controversies have emerged around pandemic flu, in order to inform future approaches.

Veterinary epidemiologist Jeff Mariner represented the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at the workshop as an invited panellist speaking on experiences with participatory surveillance in control of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Mariner said that HPAI has largely settled down to become endemic in those countries with dense and complex poultry populations and faded out from countries that were not very well suited to sustained transmission.

“The HPAI control programs had little impact in changing the epidemiological course of evolution of the epidemic, and the response to HPAI to large extent ignored key lessons from previous successful disease control activities,” he observed.

“The emergency response approach led investments to have limited sustained impact as they did not address the fundamental institutional issues and the limited capacity of host-country services to absorb the large amounts of money allocated,” he added.

In conclusion, Mariner proposed that in the future, pandemic preparedness should focus on long-term capacity building rather than short-term emergency responses.

Access the workshop report here

 

Experts call for One Health approach to tackling zoonotic diseases

Cattle coming in from the fields in the evening in Lhate Village, Chokwe, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

A group of research experts associated with the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium have called for a system-based ‘One Health’ approach to help catalyze better preparedness and surveillance that are informed by cross-disciplinary approaches.

One Health is a globally recognised approach established to promote the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines, working locally, nationally and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment.

Writing in an Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Rapid Response Briefing titled Zoonoses – From Panic to Planning (January 2013), the researchers also note that One Health could help “accelerate research discoveries, enhance the efficacy of response and prevention efforts, and improve education and care”.

However, realigning policy to embrace One Health requires a shift in focus from the current disease-centred approach to one that considers the whole system and takes into account human health, animal health and ecosystems.

Over two-thirds of all human infectious diseases have their origins in animals. The rate at which these zoonotic diseases have appeared in people has increased over the past 40 years, with at least 43 newly identified outbreaks since 2004. In 2012, outbreaks included Ebola in Uganda, yellow fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rift Valley fever in Mauritania.

Zoonotic diseases have a huge impact – and a disproportionate one on the poorest people in the poorest countries. In low-income countries, 20% of human sickness and death is due to zoonoses. Poor people suffer further when development implications are not factored into disease planning and response strategies.

A new, integrated ‘One Health’ approach to zoonoses that moves away from top-down disease-focused intervention is urgently needed. With this, we can put people first by factoring development implications into disease preparation and response strategies – and so move from panic to planning.

The briefing is lead authored by Delia Grace, veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). She leads ILRI’s research team on animal health, food safety and zoonoses as well as a research component on prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases under the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.

Citation: Grace D, Holley C, Jones K, Leach M, Marks N, Scoones I, Welburn S and Wood J. 2013. Zoonoses – From panic to planning. IDS Rapid Response Briefing 2. IDS (Institute of Development Studies), Brighton, UK.

 

International workshop to discuss an integrated approach to controlling brucellosis in Africa

Maasai father and son tend to their cattle in their paddock in Kitengela, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Brucellosis, also referred to as undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonotic disease caused by the microorganism Brucella which infects multiple animal species including cattle, sheep, pigs, small ruminants, camels, water buffaloes and yaks.

Brucellosis affects both humans and animals, causing chronic fever and joint and muscle pain in humans and abortion in animals.

Cases of brucellosis in humans are often linked to consumption of unpasteurized milk and soft cheese made from the milk of infected cows.

Brucella infection in some developing countries can reach 30% of the human population, making it a serious public health disease.

In response to the problem of this disease in Africa, some 60 animal health experts from across Africa, the United States and other countries gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 29 to 31 January 2013 for a workshop to discuss an integrated approach to controlling brucellosis.

The workshop aims to identify gaps in brucellosis epidemiology, diagnosis, surveillance and control programs.

This will assist in designing research programs and intervention strategies to aid in the control of brucellosis at national and regional levels.

Specific topics that will be addressed include:

• Transmission of infection from animals to humans
• Laboratory biosafety practices
• Diagnostics assays, serology and organism identification
• Vaccination strategies
• Potential research collaborations

The workshop is co-organized by the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

It is sponsored by the US Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program.

ILRI scientists Delia Grace, Eric Fèvre and Roger Pellé will attend the workshop.

Additional information is available on the USDA-ARS website