Abstract
The African continent is endowed with abundant wildlife, which attracts a vast majority of international and national visitors and with them foreign revenue. Eco-tourism therefore remains one of the most significant contributors to the economies of many developing countries in Africa. However, these financial reserves are continuously threatened by the emergence of endemic and/or exotic diseases that compromise both the wildlife and livestock industries of such countries. Livestock farming is a way of living for many people in many African countries especially in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) states and outbreaks of viral disease, whether endemic or exotic, results in the imposition of stringent food-safety regulations by lucrative foreign markets, thus preventing the export of animals and/or animal products from these regions. This paper aims to highlight the specific social and economic consequences on both the SADC regions as well as selected developing countries in the north of Africa, that are imposed by two viral diseases, Foot-and- Mouth Disease (FMD), a devastating disease that affects the livestock industries worldwide and Avian Influenza Virus (AIV), an exotic viral disease of birds, which not only affects the poultry industries globally, but also has the potential of causing a pandemic. The SADC states can greatly enhance its chances of reducing poverty and building rural economies by addressing the strategies that deal specifically with these two wildlife diseases and in doing so, develop necessary policies that will aid in the assessment and prevention of future outbreak situations.
Highlights
Over the past two decades, wildlife based ecotourism has rapidly expanded on a global scale and remains an important source of foreign revenue for many developing countries
Labour, vaccines, surveillance and forgone revenues are difficult to estimate for both Avian influenza virus (AIV) and Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) as these are dependent on the livestock density and the efficiency of the mitigation measures implemented by the responsible authorities [12,13]
The communities around the wildlife reserves and the nomadic cattle herding practices where livestock and wildlife interact facilitate the transfer of viral diseases to livestock
Summary
Over the past two decades, wildlife based ecotourism has rapidly expanded on a global scale and remains an important source of foreign revenue for many developing countries. The impact of disease outbreaks within the SADC states such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (Table 1, [8]) is an indication that wild life disease control policies either do not exist or are inadequately implemented within certain regions. The incidence of disease outbreaks and the reduction in the number of animals destroyed and/or slaughtered as result thereof (Table 2, [8]), indicate marginal success in the implementation of control policies in countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Poult Fish Wildl Sci 2: 115. doi:10.4172/2375-446X.1000115
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