Community-based veterinary services

Livestock health is a major problem facing farmers and herders throughout Africa. But there are few veterinarians in remote rural areas. By the time a veterinarian is able to see a sick animal, it may be too late. Modern treatments may be expensive, inappropriate and unsustainable in remote areas. Cutbacks in government services in many countries mean that farmers cannot rely on them for treatments.

However, many of the most common livestock diseases and other problems can be treated by local people using a small range of simple equipment and drugs. Local people can be trained in applying these methods to treat sick animals. This reduces both the running costs and the cost to each livestock owner.

In addition, farmers have a rich store of knowledge on herbal medicines that they have found effective over the years. Much of this valuable "ethnoveterinary" knowledge is being lost or is being replaced by modern techniques, and younger people often look down on it as a form of witchcraft. Sharing this knowledge is vital to ensure that it is used and is preserved for the future.

Providing community-based veterinary services involves much more than training local people to treat diseases and supplying them with drugs and equipment. Organization is key. There must be sufficient people in the local community who keep livestock and are interested in improving their animals' health. This ensures a high level of community involvement and improves chances of cost-recovery and financial sustainability. Local groups providing the veterinary services must be strong, independent and able to make decisions on how to manage them. These local groups should be linked with government veterinary services and policy-makers for technical support and planning.

This section gives examples of various approaches to providing community-based veterinary services. These include the training of paraveterinarians in Ethiopia, the organization of livestock holders to implement a pest-control programme in Ethiopia, training in traditional practices in Kenya, and the use of traditional herbal medicines.

Advantages

• Community-based approaches enable livestock health services to be provided to a large number of farmers in remote areas.
• Because they live and work in the villages, local paraveterinarians and traditional healers are able to respond quickly to problems that arise.
• Community-based approaches improve the access of smallholder farmers to essential veterinary drugs and services, thereby improving the health of their stock.
• The nearest professional veterinarian can supervise the paravets and support them if necessary. The paravets in turn can refer problems to the veterinarian for further treatment.
• The paravets and community workers can monitor disease outbreaks and report them to the authorities quickly.
• The paravets charge a small amount for their services and for the drugs and supplies they use. By requiring some payment, they can replenish their supplies and cover their expenses, so can continue providing the services in the future. This means that the community's animal health-care services can become sustainable and self-financing.

Disadvantages

• Paravets' knowledge and skills may be limited and insufficient to deal with serious problems.
• People may have limited confidence in paravets.
• The paravets, local people, the project management and the government may have different expectations of the paravets, for example in the need for their services, the types of services provided, and payment for them.
• Professional veterinarians may be opposed to the introduction of paravets.
• It may be difficult to maintain an adequate stock of drugs and supplies (especially after outside funding has ceased).

Training paravets for dairy goats in Ethiopia

FARM Africa's dairy-goat project in the highlands of Ethiopia offered to train as paraveterinarians people who were chosen by the women's groups participating in the project. Each group chose two people, usually one of the members and the husband of another member.

FARM Africa gave the nominees 5-7 days of training in the village. The course content focused on the major diseases in the area. It covered internal parasites such as worms, external parasites (ticks and mange), treating and dressing wounds, hoof-trimming, castration and eye treatments. It also covered how to diagnose common diseases and what diseases to report to the authorities.

Local farmers were invited to bring in their sick animals for treatment during the course, so the trainees got to see a wide range of cases and diseases, and

were able to learn practical treatments on the spot. The trainees were invited to identify each disease and explain how they would normally deal with it. The instructor then helped them identify the most typical or prominent symptoms, explained how to distinguish one disease from another, outlined the options for treatment, guided the trainees in treating the disease, and discussed what follow-up measures were necessary.

At the end of the course, the trainees were each given a knapsack sprayer, castration equipment, hoof shears and other basic equipment, as well as a supply of drugs and dressings as initial capital.

Every 6 months, the trainees receive training to refresh their knowledge and upgrade it, for instance in identifying infectious diseases (such as pneumonia), injecting drugs, and treating mastitis. The project also replenishes the paravets' drug supplies.

The paravets charge clients for the price of the drugs they use, plus a mark-up of 10-20% so they can cover their expenses and buy more supplies. For procedures that do not require supplies, such as castration, they charge a set rate: for example, birr 1 per animal castrated.

Paravets are required to keep records. Literacy is not a requirement, as the record sheets are specially designed to be used by people who cannot read and write.

The project has trained 100 paravets in this way. They currently provide services to the villages in their area, including the 1500 women members of the 120 goat-keeping groups affiliated with the project. —For more information, contact Kettema Yilma, FARM Africa, Ethiopia.

Tsetse control in southern Ethiopia

About 10 million km² of sub-Saharan Africa is unable to exploit its full agricultural potential because of tsetse flies. The flies carry trypanosomosis, a serious disease that reduces livestock production and kills many animals. In Konso district in southern Ethiopia, 16% of cattle die each year, 20% of cows abort, and more than half the calves die. Many of these deaths are caused by trypanosomosis.

Beginning in 1993, FARM Africa, the Konso Bureau of Agriculture and local veterinarians have worked with local people to control tsetse flies. In an initial survey on livestock diseases, local farmers identified trypanosomosis as their main problem. The farmers and a team of specialists then made an in-depth study of the problem, and shared their findings with the community, local decision-makers, and potential donors. In 1995, the project arranged

Treating cattle against tsetse flies

for 24 cattle-owners and elders to visit Ghibe, where the International Livestock Research Institute studies tsetse control methods. The researchers demonstrated various control techniques, and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each.

After the visit, the community decided to test one of the methods: the insecticide Deltamethrin, which is poured onto the animal's back. FARM Africa provided funds, and the community agreed to take over the costs after one year if the results were positive.

At the end of the one-year pilot phase, veterinarians, policy-makers, community members and donors held a workshop to evaluate the results and to plan for the future. The evaluation showed that the pilot project was successful, and the workshop participants decided to expand it to cover the entire area. They chose a community-based approach to minimize the need for trained workers, keep running costs low, and to recover the costs in order to ensure sustainability.

The project decided to work with traditional, livestock-oriented community organizations called "fora-men associations". These associations each have about 3-7 members, who herd their livestock jointly. The fora-men associations are responsible for using the insecticide to control the flies, developing new ideas on implementation, and contributing funds to pay for the insecticide.

For ease of management and co-ordination, the fora-men associations are grouped into larger "fora-men peasant associations". A total of 1130 livestock holders are organized into 10 of these larger associations, which liase with and co-ordinate the various fora-men associations and manage the funds.

The 10 peasant associations in turn are represented on the Woreda Tsetse Control Committee. Other members of the committee are Bureau of Agriculture staff, the Konso local government, and local NGOs. District veterinary office staff provide technical support, training and supervision.

Farmer-technicians from ten peasant associations were trained on how the tsetse flies live on the cattle and transmit the trypanosomosis disease, how the insecticide controls the flies, and how to use the insecticide. The trainees treated nearly 3000 cattle, closely supervised by the veterinary staff. This ensured that they were using the insecticide correctly, and could run the project with minimal help or outside inputs. Cattle owners were required to pay birr 5.40 (US$ 0.80) for treating each of their animals.

The veterinary staff recommended treating the animals seven times a year, but the farmers suggested treating them only when there were many flies. This meant the number of treatments could be reduced to five, saving more than one-quarter of the costs. The community collected birr 18,000 to buy insecticide, and the United Nations Development Programme donated an additional birr 50,000 to use as a revolving fund.

The project seems to have had a major impact on the health and productivity of cattle in the area. Since the insecticide treatments began the number of cattle infected by trypanosomiasis fell from 16% to zero and the number of flies caught in traps fell by 100-fold from 3.25 flies per trap each day to 0.03. The number of cattle deaths has fallen from 16% to 5% each year; the number of abortions from 20% to 2%, and the number of calves dying has dropped from 58% to only 8%.

However, this success has caused a new problem: fewer cattle dying means a rising population. It is estimated that the number of cattle will double in 12 years, resulting in a lack of forage and soil erosion. Possible solutions include intensifying forage production through planting fodder trees, improved livestock marketing, and encouraging cattle-owners to focus on the quality of their stock rather than the sheer numbers.

FARM Africa and ministry officials have learned that development projects can be much easier and more sustainable when based on traditional, local organizations. They also discovered that with proper training and supervision, farmers are able to handle complex technologies. Because of the project's success in controlling the flies, it became possible for livestock owners to herd their animals on valley land that had previously been infested by tsetse. But this meant there was the possibility of conflicts with other people interested in using the same land. To avoid such conflicts, it was important to involve all the people who shared the valley in making decisions about how to use it —For more information, contact Tibebu Habtewold, FARM Africa, Ethiopia.

Training in ethnoveterinary medicine in Kenya

Intermediate Technology-Kenya staff identified local traditional healers in Tharaka, in eastern Kenya, and asked them to identify traditional remedies that they found useful. The healers were asked to say which treatments they knew were effective, and which they had less confidence in.

IT-Kenya then invited two of the most respected traditional healers (a man and a woman) to join a 10-day training course for a group of 15 paravets at Marimanti. The course covered both modern and traditional remedies. As part of the course, the healers trained the paravets in how to collect, prepare and administer traditional remedies for various problems. —For more information, contact Orito Mageka, IT-Kenya.