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| The Context |
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Who?
Targeted at ...
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The proposed interventions are aimed primarily at smallholder mixed farmers who have limited access to many kinds of resources. Within this major category it also places emphasis on households whose heads are women and at women more generally as they are often the owners or managers of the goat enterprise within the larger household. In second place the technology is directed to agricultural, livestock and veterinary extension workers, and at other advisory personnel in the public and private sectors (including NGOs). |
When?
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The tool can be used at all times of the year (as goats are largely non-seasonal breeders and produce young throughout the year) by the main target groups.
Areas of the tropics with semiarid to (mainly) sub-humid climates or highland areas where mixed crop/livestock farming is practised. Such areas are most likely to see widespread and successful uptake of the recommended technology |
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Where?
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| Methods |
The technology aims at reducing the incidence and minimizing the effects of various health constraints on goats in smallholder mixed systems. Losses due poor health include reduced reproductive performance (from delayed onset of oestrus after parturition or reduced kidding rates from a smaller proportion of multiple births), increased mortality of kids (which in most cases is probably already high) or breeding goats and slower growth rates of kids with consequential delayed physical and sexual maturity. The negative effects of poor health are exacerbated by inadequate nutrition. Disease and nutritional effects are generally more pronounced in tethered goats than in goats managed in more open systems, probably because of close continual close contact on a limited and permanently used area.
Treating goats with anthelmintics leads to a very considerable reduction in worm and egg burdens and improves survival and growth rates in young animals in particular. A reduction in the presence of helminths also
leads to improved resistance to other forms of disease causing organisms. |
| Resources Required |
The tool should be used at least initially only by families who already own and are familiar with goats and goat production. An assured and easily available supply of effective anthelmintics is required.
An Integrated Approach:
Although control of disease is the main aim of the tool, a multipronged approach including better nutrition and more hygienic stabling conditions should be encouraged. This might require additional resources in feed supply and for housing.
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| Support |
Support will be required from public and private advisory services in order to ensure the technology is correctly transferred and properly used. The extension personnel themselves will need to be trained in the technology. Animal health assistants (or personnel of similar status and training) have a major role to play: as many women are involved in goat production female agents should be a large proportion of the advisory force. Technical services should assist farmers with general advice on disease control as well as on the more specific aspects of drug administration. The latter should pay particular attention to the correct dosage rate of the correct therapeutic product at the correct intervals. If the multipronged approach is adopted goat owners will need to be advised on improved feeding regimes and on suitable types of housing. |
| Costs |
Additional financial costs relate mainly to the costs of pharmaceutical products for treatment with lesser costs for feed and housing improvements. Non financial costs are not likely to be excessive but would relate to improved or adapted management to enhance and reinforce the effects of the technical interventions. As farmers do, however, place an intrinsic value on their time it is important to ensure that the perceived benefits assume dominance over the perceived inconveniences. |
| Benefits |
The main benefits are an increased productivity from goats that outweigh the financial and other costs. These include:
- improved animal health (which also assists in resistance against or tolerance to diseases that are not specifically targeted by the health interventions),
- higher survival rates of young and adults, and
- faster growth rates of young leading to earlier physical and sexual maturity.
The benefits are of both an immediate (that is in the short term in goats being treated) and long term (in increased numbers of "better" animals producing greater amounts of product) in nature. Benefits should be sustainable and providing management is adequate and increased numbers of breeding animals are compensated by increased offtake there should be no negative environmental effects. |
| Risks |
The main risks associated with the use of the technology are that owners will be tempted to take "short cuts" in the use of animal health products. These may include purchasing counterfeit medicines at lower cash cost but of lesser efficacy than fully licensed products and not respecting the dosage rates and intervals between applications. Extension services and advisers should attempt to ensure that this does not happen. |
| Alternatives |
There are only limited alternatives to the correct use of certificated animal health products in the context of small scale production systems. Improved management with special reference to general hygiene and more attention to nutrition should nonetheless be promoted as part of an overall goat improvement package. |
| Impacts |
The tool has been developed based on a small sample and trials in the Morogoro area of Tanzania. Were the findings to be properly implemented they could be used to improve the productivity of indigenous goats and enhance the welfare of small scale mixed smallholder farmers in many tropical areas with similar ecoclimatic and farming system characteristics. |
| Policy Implications |
National, regional and district administrations should include animal health considerations in their policies for livestock development and improvement. |
| Research Findings |
A research project (R5499) working in Tanzania found that the body condition scores and weights of goats declined during the rainy season and improved during the dry season irrespective of the management system used. Restrictions on feeding, either due to tethering or due to reduced grazing times of herded goats, was considered to be responsible for this weight loss, although helminthosis and coccidiosis were considered to be contributing factors. Free-range goats did better during the dry season.
The major health problems encountered in goats, both in Mgeta and Mlali, were helminthosis (internal worms), coccidiosis (intestinal parasites), diarrhoea and ectoparasites (ticks, lice & fleas). Subclinical helminthosis and coccidiosis were common, whereas clinical cases were rare. Helminth egg burdens were significantly higher during the rainy season than during the dry season in tethered goats belonging to small-holders in Mlali. This was also true for herded goats. No significant difference was observed in helminth infection in different seasons for either tethered or stall-fed goats in small-holder herds in Mgeta. Crossbred goats in small-holder herds in Mgeta suffered more than indigenous goats. Tethered goats in Mlali had significantly higher helminth egg burdens than free range goats. Coccidial oocyst burdens were significantly higher during the rains in pastoral goat systems in Mgeta but they were higher during the dry season in small-holder herds. Stall-fed goats in Mgeta had significantly higher coccidia oocyst burdens than tethered ones.
The most prevalent helminths were Haemonchus contortus, Trichostrongylus colubriformis and Oesophagostomum columbianum. Bunostomum trigonocephalum, Strongyloides papillosus, Trichuris ovis and Moniezia expansa were less prevalent. Eimeria was the only genus of coccidia encountered. Eimeria arloingi, E. alijevi, E. ninakohlyakimovae were the most prevalent species but E. christenseni, E. hirci, E. jolchijevi and E. caprovina were also found.
The project undertook a small trial to monitor the effects that treating goats with anthelmintics had on worm burdens. They found that burdens were significantly lowered in adults and that treated kids from tethered small-holder herds in Mgeta grew much quicker than untreated ones. Other disease problems were also encountered including respiratory infections, foot rot, diarrhoea and ectoparasites, which were common with the larger herds of pastoralist systems where goats, when housed, were kept under crowded and unhygienic conditions. Diarrhoea and foot rot were more prevalent during the rainy season than during the dry season. Fleas, ticks and lice were the major ectoparasites.
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| References and Further Reading |
| The Productivity of Tethered Goats
in Tanzania |
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| Kusiluka L.J.M., Kambararge D.M., Harrison L.J.S., Matthewman R.W. and Daborn C.J. 1995. Gastrointestinal helminths of goats and sheep in Tanzania. Tanzania Vet.Bull. 15: 3. |
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| Wilson R.T. and Traore A. 1988. Livestock production in Central Mali : Environmental and pathological factors affecting morbidity and mortality of ruminants in the agropastoral system. Prev.Vet.Med. 6: 63-75. |
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| Wilson R.T., Traore A. and Mukasa E. 1992. Mortality and morbidity of African small ruminants under various management systems. In: Pathologie caprine et productions: 2eme Colloque International de Niort, 28-29 June 1989 (Etudes et Syntheses de l'IEMVT No 42). Institut d'Elevage et de Medecine Veterinaire des Pays Tropicaux: Maisons-Alfort, France. 208-236. |
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| Kusiluka, L.J.M. and Kambarage, D.M. (1996) Diseases of small ruminants in Sub Saharan Africa: A Handbook. VetAid, ISBN 09522299 5. Extension leaflets on recommendations to improve management systems and control of diseases. (in Kiswahili). |
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