Submitted by Anna Davies on Fri, 05/12/2014 - 16:31
05 Dec 2014- CID member Professor Duncan Maskell is leading an international, interdisciplinary consortium from Myanmar, Vietnam and the UK, to develop an integrated management-based approach for surveillance and control of zoonoses in emerging livestock systems in South East Asia.
Increasing consumption of meat in developing countries, especially in South East Asia, is leading to new demands on pig and poultry supply chains and emergence of new production networks. These emerging livestock systems (ELS) are linked to peoples' changing food consumption habits, economic status, aspirations and population shifts, and to political contexts. Key features of ELS include intensification of animal keeping, increased use of antibiotics, and extended supply chains - all of which can have disadvantages from a food safety perspective. The zoonotic threats posed by these changes are largely unknown.
It is estimate that zoonotic gastrointestinal disease, caused by bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter and related antibiotic resistance, accounts for around 1 million human deaths per year globally with around 800 million people being affected, most of them children under five; a situation also reflected in the study countries Viet Nam and Myanmar which rank in the top 5 hotspots for rapidity and diversity of their ELS (ILRI report to DfID).
The project, funded with £1.6m from the BBSRC Zoonoses and Emerging Livestock (ZELS) programme, aims to exploit interdisciplinary expertise including social, biological, and governmental players from Myanmar, Viet Nam and UK to bring about step changes in pro-poor control measures using knowledge-driven and culturally relevant strategies that concomitantly improve animal health and productivity and thus improve and protect human health. This understanding will provide baseline knowledge and inform the design and evaluation of interventions intended to strengthen the safety and robustness of meat supply chains in ways that build on existing formal and informal practices and contexts, implementable in dynamic SE Asian settings.
Project Partners
- Institute of Development Studies
- Swansea University
- University of Oxford
- Myanmar Ministry of Livestock& Fisheries