Abstract
East African pastoralists and their livestock are vulnerable to alterations in resource availability and disease transmission and frequently face poor access to livestock health services. Government veterinarians tasked with guiding health services must prioritize livestock health risks and allocate limited resources across disparate ecosystems with different disease threats. To identify livestock diseases of concern and strategies for improving herd health and resilience, we conducted community focus groups with pastoralists and interviewed pastoralist household leaders, village extension officers, and government veterinary officials in south-central Tanzania, an area experiencing rapid population growth and environmental change. All participants discussed pastoralist access to livestock health services, livestock disease priorities, and means to improve livestock health. Perceptions of diseases of importance differed among pastoralists, extension officers, and government veterinarians. Spatial differences in diseases of concern among study area pastoralists emphasized the need for locally adaptable livestock health service delivery. Although pastoralist strategies to improve livestock health differed by ethnic group, many pastoralists as well as extension officers and government veterinarians identified livestock health education and training for pastoralists and extension officers as a critical need. Policies designed at the regional, rather than the local, level may not reflect the disease concerns of the entire area. To effectively address veterinary health problems and make livestock herds more resilient to environmental change, conditions at the local level must be considered. Education targeted to pastoralist households and extension officers could achieve greater flexibility in the livestock health system and provide more reliable information about local conditions for governmental policymakers.
Highlights
Pastoralists, historically nomadic and semi-nomadic herders dependent upon their livestock as a source of nutrition, cultural status, and a store of wealth (Lybbert et al 2004), have struggled to maintain their way of life (Waller 1999)
We addressed two central research questions related to sustaining herd health and pastoralist livelihoods in a changing environment: 1) How do livestock disease priorities differ among pastoralists, livestock extension officers serving multiple rural villages, and government veterinarians responsible for veterinary services and surveillance across broad geographic areas; and 2) what actions are needed to decrease livestock disease and increase herd resilience to environmental change? Using pastoralist focus groups with representatives from 21 rural villages to complement interviews with pastoralist household leaders, we designed our research to identify livestock diseases of concern, livestock health service needs, and strategies to improve herd health in pastoralist communities
In surveys and focus groups, pastoralists reported that the lack of access to extension officers and commercial medicines presented a significant problem for the health of their animals
Summary
Pastoralists, historically nomadic and semi-nomadic herders dependent upon their livestock as a source of nutrition, cultural status, and a store of wealth (Lybbert et al 2004), have struggled to maintain their way of life (Waller 1999). Research on limitations to the traditional pastoralist system has focused largely on pasture and water availability, but animal health is a critical component of. Predicted variability in temperatures and the amount and intensity of rainfall in East Africa have the potential to directly impact livestock. Gustafson et al Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice (2015) 5:1 productivity by altering the quality and availability of water and pasture (Thornton et al 2009). Changing weather patterns will likely impact herd resilience by altering disease dynamics (Ostfeld 2009; Thornton et al 2009). Not all pathogens respond to climate change, altered rainfall and temperature patterns can increase disease emergence and transmission. Climate variability (e.g. extended periods of drought or sudden floods) can stress livestock, increasing their susceptibility to disease
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