USAID Supports Prevention of Poultry Diseases in Africa
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| Aby Sadji from Senegal is more knowledgeable on protecting her chickens from disease thanks to a USAID supported avian flu project. Credit: CRS |
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The USAID supported Global Livestock Collaborative Research Program (GL-CRSP) is making significant improvements in the prevention and control of poultry diseases in several African villages.
In March 2007 the program began to address Newcastle Disease, a highly contagious and fatal viral disease that can kill more than 80% of chickens when it strikes a village in rural Africa. Under the Newcastle Disease and Avian Flu Control Research Project, villages in Tanzania are trained to provide vaccination to chickens and to develop strategies to prevent avian influenza and other poultry diseases.
From 2007 - 2008, 224 local community leaders participated in vaccination and poultry health training. In project villages near the town of Iringa, Tanzania, the results of the Newcastle vaccination effort were so dramatic - chicken numbers increased by nearly 50 percent in four months - that the village vaccination program was adopted at the district level. The Iringa Region made plans to launch a vaccination program in all districts in the Southern Highlands with a Kuku Week or “Chicken Week” in May, 2008.
The program’s Avian Flu School continues to improve the capabilities of African countries to develop strategies to prevent avian flu outbreaks. Last year the program trained national level-trainers on avian flu surveillance, prevention and response.
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