Greetings from OHRECA!
Welcome to the third issue of the OHRECA newsletter. In this third edition, we celebrate Delia Grace, who won the 2022 Arrell Global Food Innovation Award for Research Innovation and the Peter Ellis ISVEE Award . Delia is a contributing scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya, leads the food safety theme at the One Health Centre in Africa and is a professor of food safety systems at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, in the UK. This issue also looks at the evaluations of One Health platforms in Malawi, the technical and capacity building support we gave to Burundi to respond to the recent Rift Valley fever outbreak. and we share with you 18 livestock investments to take One Health to scale and prevent new pandemics. In addition, we highlight trainings we did for health care workers in Machakos County, Kenya on practical skills to assess and manage dog bites to minimise the risk of spreading rabies to humans. Also watch a short clip on how we are using nudges to gently push pork handlers in Kampala, Uganda, towards adopting the World Health Organization five keys to safer food.
We hope you enjoy reading our third issue of the newsletter. To learn more about our work, visit our website and follow us on Twitter.
Bernard Bett,
Senior Scientist ILRI and Team leader OHRECA
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18 livestock investments to take One Health to scale and prevent new pandemics
Over the past year, ILRI has been working to identify practical One Health actions. We are pleased to share with you our latest brief 'Livestock investments to transform and scale One Health'.
This brief recommends 18 livestock-related policies and actions that are able to significantly improve the health of people, animals and environments through One Health approaches. The actions recommended here, with their multiple cross-sector benefits, emerged from a 2021 investigation by ILRI of One Health challenges in the world’s low- and middle-income countries that are best addressed by interventions in the livestock sector.
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Ramping up investments in food safety, the 'Cinderella sister' of One Health
'Bird flu, Ebola, COVID-19, and now monkeypox: The list of widely recognized zoonotic diseases continues to lengthen. Yet hundreds of millions of people in Africa are much more likely to get sick and die from the food they eat than the new and alarming diseases that can close down their economies.' says Delia in a thought-provoking opinion piece published on Devex, 26 Jul 2022.
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One Health Centre in Africa supports Burundi's response to Rift Valley fever
On 10 April 2022, Burundi reported its first Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreak and notified the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) of the outbreak on 3 June 2022. The outbreak in Burundi occurred when the COVID-19 pandemic had already severely compromised the country's capacity to respond to health emergencies. At the time, Burundi had limited experience and inadequate infrastructure for deploying emergency responses, including the laboratory expertise to screen clinical samples.
Find out more on how OHRECA trained technical staff based at the veterinary laboratory, Bujumbura, on RVF virus (RVFv) diagnostics.
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Burundi steps up surveillance and response efforts to control Rift Valley fever
Burundi has stepped up efforts to prevent and control Rift valley fever, which was first reported in the country this April.
With support from OHRECA and the Regional Integrated Agricultural Development in the Great Lakes (PRDAIGL) project, the country is developing a contingency plan for the control of Rift valley fever (RVF).
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Veterinary epidemiologist Delia Grace receives the Peter Ellis ISVEE Award for her work in developing countries
On Tuesday 9 August 2022, Delia Grace (Randolph) received the Peter Ellis award for exceptional contributions to veterinary epidemiology during the Twenty-Second International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE), held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Peter Ellis ISVEE Award for the Application of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics in Development is awarded to a person for activities in veterinary epidemiology and economics carried out in developing countries that contribute to improvements in animal and/or One Health in those countries.
Delia Grace is a contributing scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Kenya, and professor of food safety systems at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, in the UK. She also leads the OHRECA food safety theme.
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Delia Grace wins Arrell Global Food Innovation Award for Research
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On 9 Jun 2022, the Arrell Food Institute of Canada’s University of Guelph awarded veterinary epidemiologist Delia Grace the 2022 Arrell Global Food Innovation Award for Research Innovation. The award was presented in Toronto during the 5th Arrell Food Summit, on the ‘Future of Food’. The Arrell Global Food Innovation Award is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced food security around the world through contributions to science or communities.
Delia’s work has raised the formerly neglected issue of food safety in developing countries to the prominence it is afforded today. Her work applies participatory Eco-Health and One Health approaches that must be employed if we are to make progress in addressing the world’s most complex and severe food security issues.
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Rising populations without sustainable food systems will heighten Africa's infectious disease burden
Africa’s unprecedented growth in human population and urbanisation will likely exert more pressure on ecosystems, mainly through the transformation of food systems. These changes would heighten the risk of many infectious diseases, including those shared between humans and animals. Identifying sustainable food production systems in line with the One Health framework is therefore essential to pre-empt future pandemic, epidemic or endemic diseases.
Read more on this article by Bernard Bett, Senior scientist at ILRI and OHRECA team leader.
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Evaluation of Malawi One Health platforms to help close gaps in One Health implementation in the country
On 28 March 2022, OHRECA, together with the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM), held a one-day workshop to share and validate results collected from the evaluation of One Health platforms in the country. PHIM is mandated to coordinate One Health activities in the country. The meeting brought together partners and stakeholders working across the three pillars of One Health – animal, human and environment in the country.
OHRECA has completed evaluations of One Health platforms in eight countries: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. The evaluations aim to identify any gaps in the use of One Health by each of the platforms examined based on a framework developed by the Network for One Health (NEOH). Gaps identified in the evaluation exercise will be used to develop a competency-based curriculum that will improve the capacity of the platforms.
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ILRI’s Boosting Uganda’s Investment in Livestock Development (BUILD) project, in collaboration with Vétérinaires Sans Frontièrs Germany, 17 Triggers with co-funding from the One Health Centre in Africa have developed nudges that have enabled food handlers at pork joints in Kampala, Uganda, to internalize good practices which have led to safer food despite the challenging work environment. The nudges were used to gently push pork handlers towards adopting the World Health Organization five keys to safer food.
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One Health research program rolls out rabies management training for health workers in Machakos, Kenya
Dog bites are a serious health problem in parts of Kenya because of the risk of spreading rabies to humans. The proper management of dog bite victims can be the difference between life and death. The One Health Centre in Africa (OHRECA) organized a series of four, two-day training sessions from 28 March to 7 April 2022 that aimed to equip healthcare workers in Machakos County with practical skills to assess and manage dog bites.
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What we are reading
- Sentamu, D.N., Onono, J.O., Muinde, P., Bor, N., Chepyatich, D. and Thomas, L.F. 2022. Prevalence of gross lesions and handling practices in pigs and their association with pork quality, Kiambu, Kenya. PLOS ONE 17(8): e0272951.
- Juma, J., Fonseca, V., Konongoi, S.L., Heusden, P. van, Roesel, K., Sang, R., Bett, B., Christoffels, A., Oliveira, T. de and Oyola, S.O. 2022. Genomic surveillance of Rift Valley fever virus: From sequencing to lineage assignment. BMC Genomics 23: 520.
- Gakuya, F., Akoko, J., Wambua, L., Nyamota, R., Ronoh, B., Lekolool, I., Mwatondo, A., Muturi, M., Ouma, C., Nthiwa, D., Middlebrook, E., Fair, J., Gachohi, J., Njenga, K. and Bett, B. 2022. Evidence of co-exposure with Brucella spp, Coxiella burnetii, and Rift Valley fever virus among various species of wildlife in Kenya. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16(8): e0010596.
- Dione, M.M., Séry, A., Sidibé, C.A.K., Wieland, B. and Fall, A. 2022. Exposure to multiple pathogens: Serological evidence for Rift Valley fever virus, Coxiella burnetii, Bluetongue virus and Brucella spp. in cattle, sheep and goat in Mali. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16(4): e0010342.
- Ngwili, N., Thomas, L., Githigia, S., Muloi, D., Marshall, K., Wahome, R. and Roesel, K. 2022. Co-infection of pigs with Taenia solium cysticercosis and gastrointestinal parasites in Eastern and Western Uganda. Parasitology Research 121(1): 177–189.
- Ngwili, N., Thomas, L., Githigia, S., Johnson, N., Wahome, R. and Roesel, K. 2022. Stakeholders’ knowledge, attitude, and perceptions on the control of Taenia solium in Kamuli and Hoima Districts, Uganda. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9: 833721.
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