How can we realise the full potential of animal health systems for delivering development and health outcomes?

Animal health services play an essential role in supporting livestock production, with the potential to address the challenges of hunger, poverty, health, social justice and environmental health as part of the path towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) defined in the United Nations, 2030 Agenda. However, the provision of animal health services remains chronically underfunded. Although the aspiration that â€Ëœno one will be left behind' is core to the SDG agenda, animal health service provision still fails to meet the basic needs of many of the poorest livestock owners. This review draws largely on experience from Tanzania and highlights the obstacles to equitable provision of animal health services, as well as identifying opportunities for improvement. Delivery models that rely on owners paying for services, whether through the private sector or public?private partnerships, can be effective for diseases that are of clear economic importance to animal keepers, particularly in more market-orientated production systems, but are currently constrained by issues of access, affordability, availability and quality. Substantial challenges remain when attempting to control diseases that exert a major burden on animal or human health but are less well recognised, as well as in the delivery of veterinary public health or other public good interventions. Here, the authors propose solutions that focus on: improving awareness of the potential for animal health services to address the SDGs, particularly those concerning public and environmental health; linking this more explicitly with advocacy for increased investment; ensuring that the voices of stakeholders are heard, particularly those of the rural poor; and embracing a cross-cutting and expanded vision for animal health services to support more adaptive development of livestock systems.

Les services de santé animale accomplissent une fonction essentielle en faveur de la production animale tout en ayant un potentiel d'action pour relever les défis de la faim, de la pauvreté, de la santé, de la justice sociale et de la santé dans la perspective des objectifs de développement durable (ODD) définis dans l'Agenda 2030 des Nations Unies. Toutefois, la prestation de services de santé animale souffre d'un sous-financement chronique. Bien que l'aspiration de « ne laisser personne pour compte ¼ soit au coeur du programme des ODD, à ce jour la prestation de services de santé animale ne parvient pas encore à répondre aux besoins fondamentaux de nombreux propriétaires de bétail parmi les plus pauvres. Les auteurs s'appuient largement sur l'expérience de la Tanzanie pour mettre en évidence les obstacles à une prestation équitable de services de santé animale, et relever des perspectives d'amélioration. Les modèles de prestation assurés dans le cadre du secteur privé ou de partenariats public-privé et reposant sur le paiement des services par les propriétaires se révèlent efficaces lorsqu'il s'agit de maladies qui ont une importance économique évidente pour les détenteurs d'animaux, en particulier dans les systèmes de production orientés vers le marché, mais ils sont actuellement limités par des problèmes d'accès, de coût, de disponibilité de l'offre et de qualité. Des difficultés encore plus grandes subsistent lorsqu'il s'agit de lutter contre des maladies moins connues bien qu'ayant un impact important sur la santé animale ou humaine, ou d'assurer des services de santé publique vétérinaire ou d'autres interventions relevant du bien public. Les auteurs proposent des solutions centrées sur : une meilleure sensibilisation concernant le potentiel des services de santé animale à réaliser les ODD, en particulier ceux qui portent sur la santé publique et la santé environnementale ; la mise en place de liens plus explicites avec les plaidoyers en faveur d'investissements accrus ; des mesures garantissant que les voix de toutes les parties prenantes soient entendues, en particulier celles des pauvres du monde rural ; l'adoption d'une stratégie transversale et de grande ampleur pour les services de santé animale en faveur d'un développement plus adaptatif des systèmes d'élevage.

Los servicios de sanidad animal cumplen una esencial función de apoyo a la producción ganadera, potencialmente útil para abordar problemas relacionados con el hambre, la pobreza, la salud, la justicia social y la salud ambiental como parte del camino hacia los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) marcados en la Agenda 2030 de las Naciones Unidas. Sin embargo, la prestación de servicios zoosanitarios está lastrada por un déficit crónico de financiación. Aunque en la base misma de los ODS late la aspiración de «no dejar a nadie atrás¼, la prestación estos servicios aún no alcanza para responder a las necesidades básicas de muchos de los propietarios de ganado más pobres. Los autores, basándose principalmente en la experiencia de Tanzania, destacan los obstáculos que dificultan una prestación equitativa de servicios zoosanitarios y señalan las posibilidades existentes para progresar al respecto. Los modelos de prestación que requieren que el propietario pague por los servicios recibidos, ya sea del sector privado o de alianzas publicoprivadas, pueden resultar eficaces en el caso de enfermedades que revisten una clara importancia económica para los productores, especialmente en sistemas productivos con una marcada orientación comercial, aunque actualmente se ven lastrados por problemas de acceso, asequibilidad, disponibilidad y calidad. Por otro lado, subsisten dificultades de gran calado a la hora de combatir enfermedades menos reconocidas, aunque estas entrañen una pesada carga sanitaria o zoosanitaria, y también a la hora de implantar medidas de salud pública veterinaria u otras intervenciones de interés público. Los autores proponen soluciones centradas en: dar mejor a conocer el potencial que encierran los servicios de sanidad animal para perseguir los ODS, sobre todo los relacionados con la salud pública y ambiental; vincular más explícitamente esto último a la labor de sensibilización para lograr inversiones más cuantiosas; hacer oír la voz de todos los interesados, en especial la de los pobres de zonas rurales; y adoptar una visión más amplia y transversal de los servicios zoosanitarios para favorecer un desarrollo más flexible de los sistemas ganaderos.

Proof of concept of mass dog vaccination for thecontrol and elimination of canine rabies.

For more than 100 years, canine rabies vaccination has been available as a tool for rabies control and elimination. However, domestic dogs still remain a major reservoir for rabies, and although canine rabies has been eliminated through mass dog vaccination in some parts of the world, the disease continues to kill tens of thousands of people every year in Africa and Asia. This review focuses on the situation on those two continents, presenting evidence to show that canine rabies elimination is both epidemiologically and operationally feasible, and could be achieved across a wide range of settings in Africa and Asia. The challenges of achieving the large-scale, comprehensive dog vaccination coverage that is required are discussed, and opportunities for developing new strategies that generate multiple benefits for human and animal health and welfare are highlighted. Finally, the substantial progress that has been made in developing the tools, partnerships and frameworks needed to move towards global canine rabies elimination is outlined.

La vaccination antirabique des chiens est pratiquée depuis plus d'un siècle en tant qu'outil de contrôle et d'élimination de la rage. Néanmoins, les chiens domestiques constituent encore aujourd'hui un réservoir majeur du virus de la rage et si la rage canine a pu être éliminée dans certaines régions du monde grâce à la vaccination massive des chiens, la maladie continue de faire des dizaines de milliers de victimes humaines chaque année en Afrique et en Asie. Les auteurs font le point sur la situation dans ces deux continents en montrant que l'élimination de la rage canine est un objectif réaliste, tant au plan épidémiologique qu'opérationnel, et atteignable dans de très diverses configurations d'Afrique et d'Asie. Ils décrivent les difficultés d'obtenir le niveau requis de couverture vaccinale des populations canines en termes d'effectifs vaccinés et de territoires couverts, et soulignent les perspectives de développement de nouvelles stratégies pouvant générer de multiples bénéfices pour la santé et le bien-être des hommes et des animaux. Enfin, ils évoquent les progrès considérables accomplis dans la mise en place des outils, des partenariats et des cadres nécessaires pour avancer vers l'objectif de l'élimination mondiale de la rage canine.

La vacunación contra la rabia canina es una herramienta utilizada desde hace más de 100 años con fines de control y eliminación de la enfermedad. No obstante, los perros domésticos aún constituyen un importante reservorio de rabia, y pese que en algunas partes del mundo se ha logrado eliminar la rabia canina gracias a la vacunación masiva de perros, esta afección sigue matando a decenas de miles de personas al año en África y Asia. Los autores, centrándose en la situación reinante en estos dos continentes, presentan datos demostrativos de que la eliminación de la rabia canina es un objetivo factible tanto epidemiológica como operativamente, hacedero en muy diversos lugares de África y Asia. También exponen los problemas existentes para lograr la amplia cobertura de vacunación canina a gran escala que se requiere para cumplir tal objetivo y destacan las oportunidades existentes para elaborar nuevas estrategias que deparen múltiples beneficios para la salud y el bienestar de personas y animales. Por último, repasan a grandes líneas los sustanciales progresos registrados en la creación de las herramientas, las alianzas y los marcos de referencia que se necesitan para avanzar hacia la eliminación de la rabia canina en todo el mundo.

One Health contributions towards more effective and equitable approaches to health in low- and middle-income countries.

Emerging zoonoses with pandemic potential are a stated priority for the global health security agenda, but endemic zoonoses also have a major societal impact in low-resource settings. Although many endemic zoonoses can be treated, timely diagnosis and appropriate clinical management of human cases is often challenging. Preventive 'One Health' interventions, e.g. interventions in animal populations that generate human health benefits, may provide a useful approach to overcoming some of these challenges. Effective strategies, such as animal vaccination, already exist for the prevention, control and elimination of many endemic zoonoses, including rabies, and several livestock zoonoses (e.g. brucellosis, leptospirosis, Q fever) that are important causes of human febrile illness and livestock productivity losses in low- and middle-income countries. We make the case that, for these diseases, One Health interventions have the potential to be more effective and generate more equitable benefits for human health and livelihoods, particularly in rural areas, than approaches that rely exclusively on treatment of human cases. We hypothesize that applying One Health interventions to tackle these health challenges will help to build trust, community engagement and cross-sectoral collaboration, which will in turn strengthen the capacity of fragile health systems to respond to the threat of emerging zoonoses and other future health challenges. One Health interventions thus have the potential to align the ongoing needs of disadvantaged communities with the concerns of the broader global community, providing a pragmatic and equitable approach to meeting the global goals for sustainable development and supporting the global health security agenda.This article is part of the themed issue 'One Health for a changing world: zoonoses, ecosystems and human well-being'.

Pastoralism and wildlife: historical and current perspectives in the East African rangelands of Kenya and Tanzania.

The relationship between pastoralists, their livestock, wildlife and the rangelands of East Africa is multi-directional, complex and long-standing. The tumultuous events of the past century, however, have rewritten the nature of this relationship, reshaping the landscapes that were created, and relied upon, by both pastoralists and wildlife. Presently, much of the interaction between wildlife and pastoralists takes place in and around protected areas, the most contentious occurring in pastoral lands surrounding national parks. In conservation terminology these areas are called buffer zones. In the past century buffer zones have been shaped by, and contributed to, restrictive conservation policies, expropriation of land, efforts to include communities in conservation, both positive and negative wildlife/livestock interactions, and political tensions. In this review paper, the authors outline the history that shaped the current relationship between pastoralists, livestock and wildlife in buffer zones in East Africa and highlight some of the broader issues that pastoralists (and pastoralism as an effective livelihood strategy) now face. Finally, they consider some of the sustainable and equitable practices that could be implemented to improve livelihoods and benefit wildlife and pastoralism alike.

Les relations entre les pasteurs, leur bétail, la faune sauvage et les prairies d'Afrique de l'Est sont pluridimensionnelles, complexes et anciennes. Néanmoins, les bouleversements survenus au cours du 20e siècle ont redéfini ces relations et redessiné des paysages qui avaient été durablement façonnés à la fois par les pasteurs et par la faune sauvage. Actuellement, la plupart des interactions entre la faune sauvage et les pasteurs ont lieu à l'intérieur et à proximité de zones protégées, les plus conflictuelles de ces interactions survenant dans les prairies qui entourent les parcs nationaux. Dans la terminologie de la protection de la nature, ces zones sont qualifiées de « zones tampons ¼. Au siècle dernier, les zones tampons ont été tracées sous l'effet de facteurs qu'elles ont à leur tour contribué à renforcer : mesures restrictives de conservation, expropriation des terres, tentatives de réformes visant à intégrer les communautés locales dans les processus de conservation, interactions positives et négatives entre les animaux sauvages et le bétail, tensions politiques. Les auteurs apportent un éclairage historique afin d'expliquer les relations entre les pasteurs, le bétail et les animaux sauvages dans les zones tampons d'Afrique de l'Est et mettent en avant les problématiques plus larges auxquelles les pasteurs (et le pastoralisme en tant que stratégie de survie économique) sont actuellement confrontés. Enfin, ils proposent quelques solutions pour l'avenir, en lien avec des pratiques durables et équitables permettant d'améliorer les revenus des pasteurs afin de protéger la faune sauvage et de pérenniser le pastoralisme.

Las comunidades pastorales, su ganado, la fauna salvaje y los pastizales de África oriental mantienen entre sí una arraigada relación, compleja y poliédrica. Los tumultuosos acontecimientos del siglo pasado, sin embargo, redefinieron la naturaleza de esta relación y remodelaron los paisajes que los pastores y la fauna salvaje habían ido configurando y de los cuales dependían. A día de hoy el grueso de las interacciones entre la fauna salvaje y los pastores se produce en el interior o las inmediaciones de zonas protegidas: la cuestión resulta especialmente espinosa en las tierras de pastoreo que circundan los parques nacionales. En el léxico de la protección de la naturaleza estos espacios se denominan «zonas tampón¼. En el curso del pasado siglo se fueron delimitando zonas tampón que eran a la vez resultantes y generatrices de políticas restrictivas de protección, expropiaciones de tierras, iniciativas de reforma para incluir a las comunidades en las tareas de protección, interacciones (positivas o negativas) entre el ganado y la fauna salvaje y tensiones políticas. Tras repasar el devenir histórico que forjó la actual relación entre pastores, ganado y fauna salvaje en las zonas tampón de África oriental, los autores se detienen en algunos de los problemas de mayor calado a los que se enfrentan ahora las sociedades pastorales (y el pastoreo como medio de vida eficaz). Por último, también examinan posibles fórmulas para alumbrar usos sostenibles y equitativos que mejoren los medios de sustento y beneficien a la vez a la fauna salvaje y el pastoreo.

A field vaccine trial in Tanzania demonstrates partial protection against malignant catarrhal fever in cattle.

Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a fatal lymphoproliferative disease of cattle that, in East Africa, results from transmission of the causative virus, alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1), from wildebeest. A vaccine field trial involving an attenuated AlHV-1 virus vaccine was performed over two wildebeest calving seasons on the Simanjiro Plain of northern Tanzania. Each of the two phases of the field trial consisted of groups of 50 vaccinated and unvaccinated cattle, which were subsequently exposed to AlHV-1 challenge by herding toward wildebeest. Vaccination resulted in the induction of virus-specific and virus-neutralizing antibodies. Some cattle in the unvaccinated groups also developed virus-specific antibody responses but only after the start of the challenge phase of the trial. PCR of DNA from blood samples detected AlHV-1 infection in both groups of cattle but the frequency of infection was significantly lower in the vaccinated groups. Some infected animals showed clinical signs suggestive of MCF but few animals went on to develop fatal MCF, with similar numbers in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. This study demonstrated a baseline level of MCF-seropositivity among cattle in northern Tanzania of 1% and showed that AlHV-1 virus-neutralizing antibodies could be induced in Tanzanian zebu shorthorn cross cattle by our attenuated vaccine, a correlate of protection in previous experimental trials. The vaccine reduced infection rates by 56% in cattle exposed to wildebeest but protection from fatal MCF could not be determined due to the low number of fatal cases.

Fatal ulcerative colitis in a western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

A captive western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) presented with watery diarrhoea that progressed to become profuse and haemorrhagic. Faecal analyses revealed Balantidium (B.) coli trophozoites and salmonella-like bacteria. Despite treatment the gorilla died on the 5th day after onset of symptoms. Post-mortem examination revealed a severe erosive-ulcerative superficial and deep colitis. Histological examination of post-mortem samples of the colon showed plentiful B. coli invading into the mucosa and submucosa, whilst PCR screening of bacterial DNA could not confirm any bacteria species which could be connected to the clinical picture. As B. coli is usually a non-pathogenic gut commensal, and as this animal previously showed evidence of non-symptomatic infection of B. coli, it is possible that the switch in pathogenicity was triggered by an acute bacterial infection. Despite successful treatment of the bacterial infection the secondary deep invasion of B. coli was not reversed, possibly because of the failure of the treatment regimen, and led to the death of the gorilla.

The complex evolutionary history of gorillas: insights from genomic data.

Relatively little is known about the evolutionary and demographic histories of gorillas, one of our closest living relatives. In this study, we used samples from both western (Gorilla gorilla) and eastern (Gorilla beringei) gorillas to infer the timing of the split between these geographically disjunct populations and to elaborate the demographic history of gorillas. Here we present DNA sequences from 16 noncoding autosomal loci from 15 western gorillas and 3 eastern gorillas, including 2 noninvasively sampled free-ranging individuals. We find that the genetic diversity of gorillas is similar to that of chimpanzees but almost twice as high as that of bonobos and humans. A significantly positive Fu & Li's D was observed for western gorillas, suggesting a complex demographic history with a constant, long-term population size and ancestral population structure. Among different population-split scenarios, our data suggest a complex history of western and eastern gorillas including an initial population split at around 0.9-1.6 MYA and subsequent, primarily male-mediated gene flow until approximately 80,000-200,000 years ago. Furthermore, simulations revealed that more gene flow took place from eastern to western gorilla populations than vice versa.