Abstract
Livestock interventions can improve nutrition, health, and economic well-being of communities. The objectives of this review were to identify and characterize livestock interventions in developing countries and to assess their effectiveness in achieving development outcomes. A scoping review, guided by a search strategy, was conducted. Papers needed to be written in English, published in peer-reviewed journals, and describe interventions in animal health and production. Out of 2739 publications systematically screened at the title, abstract, and full publication levels, 70 met our inclusion criteria and were considered in the study. Eight relatively high-quality papers were identified and added, resulting in 78 reviewed publications. Only 15 studies used randomized controlled trial designs making it possible to confidently link interventions with the resulting outcomes. Eight studies had human nutrition or health as outcomes, 11 focused on disease control, and four were on livestock production. Eight interventions were considered successful, but only four were scalable. We found good evidence that livestock-transfer programs, leveraging livestock products for nutrition, and helping farmers manage priority diseases, can improve human well-being. Our report highlights challenges in garnering evidence for livestock interventions in developing countries and provides suggestions on how to improve the quantity and quality of future evaluations.
Highlights
Declining, poverty and hunger are persistent problems in many developing countries
Our scoping of the literature identified a total of 70 publications (56 full papers and 14 abstracts); 23 (32.8%) were from studies conducted in Asia, 45 (64.3%) in Africa, one (1.4%) in Latin America (Mexico), and one (1.4%) in multiple countries across the three regions
In relation, the majority of the total screened literature had outcomes related to animal health, and a much lower proportion of studies considered human health outcomes
Summary
Poverty and hunger are persistent problems in many developing countries. Livestock are a pathway out of poverty for poor producers; animal products are of high value and their demand is rapidly growing, driven by urbanization and increasing middle-income classes (Lindahl et al, 2018). These factors make livestock-based interventions attractive to development agencies. Pathways, have been developed to understand how interventions could benefit smallholder livestock keepers, livestock value chain actors, and consumers of livestock products (Randolph et al, 2007; Mayne and Johnson, 2015). The negative effects of livestock at community level include reducing the time available for mothers to take care of young children, transmission of zoonotic infections, and creating social discord when animals stray or are stolen
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