Prevalence and associated risk factors assessment of bovine fasciolosis in the Imbo Region, Burundi.

Fasciolosis is a zoonosis that limits the productivity of ruminants worldwide, but there is a lack of information on its occurrence in Burundi. Therefore, this study aimed to fill the information gap by determining the prevalence and risk factors associated with bovine fasciolosis in the Imbo Region of Burundi. Two prevalence studies were conducted in parallel in the five communes of the five provinces in the Imbo region. In the first study, a total of 426 fecal samples were collected from randomly selected cattle farms and microscopically examined to determine Fasciola egg burden. Survey data on cattle husbandry were collected from owners of these cattle and analyzed to determine the risk factors for bovine fasciolosis. In the second study, 467 cattle were randomly selected in abattoirs and their livers were examined postmortem to determine liver fluke burdens. Data were entered separately into Microsoft Excel and analyzed using R software. The overall prevalence of bovine fasciolosis was 47.7% (42.9-52.4, 95% CI) for microscopic examination and 33.2% (28.9-37.5, 95% CI) for postmortem examinations. The majority of positive cattle (60.6%) had light intensity infections as determined by eggs per gram of feces (epg). Postmortem examinations corroborated these results and indicated that 80% of cattle had light intensity infections. Chi-square analysis showed a statistical association with the presence of bovine fasciolosis and the age, sex, and origin of cattle and the practices of cattle owners (P < 0.05).

High-yield dairy cattle breeds improve farmer incomes, curtail greenhouse gas emissions and reduce dairy import dependency in Tanzania.

Tanzania's dairy sector is poorly developed, creating reliance on imports for processed, value-added dairy products and threatening food security, particularly when supply chains are disrupted due to market volatility or armed conflicts. The Tanzanian Dairy Development Roadmap is a domestic development initiative that aims to achieve dairy self-sufficiency by 2030. Here, we model different outcomes of the roadmap, finding that adoption of high-yield cattle breeds is essential for reducing dairy import dependency. Avoided land use change resulting from fewer, higher yielding dairy cattle would lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Dairy producers' average incomes could increase despite capital expenditure and land allocation required for the adoption of high-yield breeds. Our findings demonstrate the importance of bottom-up development policies for sustainable food system transformations, which also support food sovereignty, increase incomes for smallholder farmers and contribute towards Tanzania's commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Upgrading the smallholder dairy value chain: a system dynamics ex-ante impact assessment in Tanzania's Kilosa district.

This paper examines ex-ante impacts of two policy interventions that improve productivity of local-breed cows through artificial insemination (AI) and producers' access to distant markets through a dairy market hub. The majority of cattle in Kilosa district in Tanzania are local low productivity breeds kept by smallholders and agro-pastoralists. Milk production is seasonal, which constrains producers' access to distant urban markets, constrains producers' incomes and restricts profitability in dairy processing. We developed and evaluated an integrated system dynamics (SD) simulation model that captures many relevant feedbacks between the biological dynamics of dairy cattle production, the economics of milk market access, and the impacts of rainfall as an environmental factor. Our analysis indicated that in the short (1 year) and medium (5-year) term, policy interventions have a negative effect on producers' income due to high AI costs. However, in the long term (5+ years), producers' income from dairy cattle activities markedly increases (by, on average, 7% per year). The results show the potential for upgrading the smallholder dairy value chain in Kilosa, but achievement of this result may require financial support to producers in the initial stages (first 5 years) of the interventions, particularly to offset AI costs, as well as additional consideration of post-farm value chain costs. Furthermore, institutional aspects of dairy market hub have substantial effects on trade-offs amongst performance measures (e.g. higher profit vs. milk consumption at producer's household) with gain in cumulative profit coming at the expense of a proportional and substantial reduction in home milk consumption.

Risk factors of gastrointestinal nematode parasite infections in small ruminants kept in smallholder mixed farms in Kenya.

BACKGROUND: Helminth infections in small ruminants are serious problems in the developing world, particularly where nutrition and sanitation are poor. This study investigated the burden and risk factors of gastrointestinal nematode parasite infections in sheep and goats kept in smallholder mixed farms in the Kenyan Central Highlands. Three hundred and seven small ruminants were sampled from 66 smallholder mixed farms in agro-ecological zones 1 (humid) and 3 (semi-humid) in the Kenyan Central highlands. The farms were visited once a month for eight months during which a health and production survey questionnaire was administered. Fecal samples were collected at each visit from each animal. Fecal egg counts (FEC) were performed using the modified McMaster technique. Associations between potential risk factors and FEC were assessed using 3-level Poisson models fit in SAS using GLIMMIX macro. Correlations among repeated observations were adjusted for using three different correlation structures. RESULTS: A rise in FEC was observed two months after the onset of rains. Farmer education, age category, de-worming during the preceding month and grazing system were significant predictors of FEC. Additionally, there were significant interactions between grazing system and both de-worming and age category implying that the effect of grazing system is dependent on both de-worming status and age category; and that the effect of de-worming depends on the grazing system. The most important predictors of FEC in the study area were grazing system, de-worming status and education of the farmers. CONCLUSION: Since several factors were important predictors of FEC, controlling gastrointestinal helminths of small ruminants in these resource-poor smallholder mixed farms requires a sustainable integrated helminth control strategy that includes adoption of zero-grazing and more farmer education probably through extension services. Achieving improved helminth controls in these resource-poor farming systems offers an opportunity to increase small ruminant productivity and hence has a potential of improving the livelihood of the resource-poor farmers.