Description

Abstract: Local chickens are an important resource benefiting the livelihoods of impoverished people in developing countries. Household chicken production provides food and income and is an important component of food security for the rural poor. However, rampant poultry diseases, predation, and poor production practices are among hindrances to improving village poultry productivity. The human community structure in African villages provides the social setting necessary for collective action to prevent diseases among free-ranging poultry. The Newcastle Disease and Avian Flu Control (NDAFC) project was aimed at testing the effectiveness of a multi-level community approach to implement a Newcastle disease vaccination and General poultry health and management program in three districts in Tanzania. The project successfully trained 197 local leaders, 86 village chicken vaccinators and 196 farmers in three wards of Tanzania. The vaccination of 158,343 chickens in selected villages of the three wards substantially controlled Newcastle disease. This field research has confirmed the importance of local social and technical considerations in developing intervention strategies, the value of engaging local leadership, and the benefit of designing holistic rather than singular-purpose animal health programs.