Pave-ing the way forward?

A chronic wasting disease, which affects cattle in southern Sudan, has recently been investigated and clarified through the use of participatory methods. The disease, known as liei, causes reduced milk production, poor fertility and death and yet vets had previously been unable to confirm the disease. However, with the aid of participatory appraisal techniques, veterinary workers have recently been able to draw on local animal health knowledge by enabling livestock owners to describe and analyze the disease from their own perceptions and in their own language. The findings from participatory methods were combined with conventional surveys and post-mortem examinations, and results showed that liei is a disease complex involving parasites such as trypanosomes, liver flukes and Schistosoma bovis.

credit: Andy Catley

The problems associated with liei were originally brought to the attention of the PAVE (Participatory Approaches to Veterinary Epidemiology) project by vets working for the UNICEF Operation Lifeline Sudan (Southern Sector) Livestock Programme. These vets have been working closely with the livestock herders of Nuer and Dinka communities in southern Sudan for several years to provide community-based animal health services. Herders identified liei as a major constraint in the production of livestock. Through the use of PA tools, interviewing, ranking and diagramming, which work equally well with literate and illiterate people, the views of women and children could also be sought and compared with those of men who spend most time with the cattle. Local perceptions of disease signs and causes of liei will be used by UNICEF vets to revise training courses for community-based animal health workers and to introduce more effective ways of preventing and treating the disease.

Participating with pastoralists

Although there are those that still view PA methods with some scepticism, the results from the PAVE project have shown their value in understanding indigenous knowledge. This is particularly relevant in a region where pastoralists are amongst the most vulnerable of the rural poor, and where development of community-based animal health services has been shown to be critical in the improvement of pastoralists' livelihoods. However, a key feature of the community-based approach is to develop local knowledge and this can only be achieved if veterinarians work with pastoralists to compare local concepts and names of diseases with modern disease names. Without this interaction, it is more difficult for vets to identify the most appropriate medication to use. It also helps to prevent misuse of veterinary drugs.

Whilst links are being developed with African veterinary schools to ensure lessons learned through PAVE enable newly trained vets to understand and develop more effective community-based programmes, a partnership with OAU/IBAR is enabling valid experiences from the PAVE project to be targeted at senior African policy-makers in livestock services. PAVE has recently worked with the Kenya Trypanosomosis Research Institute to conduct participatory research on bovine trypanosomosis with Orma communities in Tana River District, Kenya. The project is also working with vets in Tanzania to use combined participatory and conventional methods to investigate chronic forms of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. And, with the success of the tools and techniques developed so far, the PAVE project hopes to continue developing research partnerships with those that have conventional animal health or production data for comparison, with a participatory survey.

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