Bartels Chris J M, Fakhri A Qader, Shams M Hamed, Briscoe Raymond P, Schreuder Bram E C
Animal Health Works, St. Odulphusstraat 40, 8574SX Bakhuizen, The Netherlands.
Dutch Committee for Afghanistan - Veterinary Programmes, Regional Office Herat, Qul Ordu Street, Herat, Afghanistan.
Prev Vet Med. 2017 Oct 1;146:79-85. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2017.07.019. Epub 2017 Aug 1.
In the present study, we quantified the effect of livestock services provided through paravets (intermediate-level training in veterinary medicine) on mortality and offtake of small ruminants in Western Afghanistan for the years 2010, 2011 and 2013. We compared mortality in adult and in young stock, and offtake of young stock of 120 livestock owners that made use of the paravet services (Users) with 120 livestock owners who did not make use of these services (Non-users). Security issues in the districts under study influenced the choice of villages. Within villages, livestock owners were purposively selected based on their known use of the services, including the provision of biologicals such as anthelmintics and vaccines. In addition, we subdivided both categories into 'partial' and 'full' based on the intensity of use of biologicals. Paravets were not only trained on preventive and curative veterinary medicine, they were also trained in extension and trained on adhering to a cold-chain and applying quality biologicals. For Non-users there was the possibility to buy biologicals through a local market or bazaar. In Afghanistan, local markets have an extensive supply of vaccines, anthelmintics, and medicines from a variety of sources, often not handled appropriately and therefore of varying quality. The results indicated that livestock owners making partial or full use of the paravet services had statistically significant better animal health and production results. The mortalities in adult stock, expressed as Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs), for the partial-Users and full-Users categories were estimated to be respectively 0.80 and 0.73 times the mortality observed in the partial Non-users', the reference category. A similar result was observed for young stock mortality with estimated IRRs of 0.81 and 0.77 for partial and full-Users category respectively. The offtake for partial- and full-Users category livestock owners were 1.24 and 1.21 times higher compared with the reference category. In conclusion, we demonstrated significant improvement of health and production parameters in small ruminants' flocks of owners making use of the services of the DCA-trained paravets, emphasizing the importance of this sustainable and effective system of private veterinary service delivery in Afghanistan.
在本研究中，我们量化了2010年、2011年和2013年通过兽医助理（接受过中级兽医学培训）提供的畜牧服务对阿富汗西部小反刍动物死亡率和出栏率的影响。我们比较了成年牲畜和幼畜的死亡率，以及120名使用兽医助理服务的牲畜养殖户（使用者）与120名未使用这些服务的牲畜养殖户（非使用者）的幼畜出栏率。研究地区的安全问题影响了村庄的选择。在村庄内部，根据牲畜养殖户对服务的已知使用情况，包括驱虫药和疫苗等生物制品的供应情况，有目的地进行了选择。此外，我们根据生物制品的使用强度将这两类养殖户进一步细分为“部分使用”和“完全使用”。兽医助理不仅接受了预防和治疗兽医学方面的培训，还接受了推广培训以及冷链操作和使用优质生物制品方面的培训。对于非使用者来说，可以通过当地市场或集市购买生物制品。在阿富汗，当地市场有大量来自各种渠道的疫苗、驱虫药和药品供应，这些药品往往处理不当，因此质量参差不齐。结果表明，部分或完全使用兽医助理服务的牲畜养殖户在动物健康和生产成果方面在统计学上有显著更好的表现。以发病率比（IRRs）表示的成年牲畜死亡率，部分使用者和完全使用者类别分别估计为部分非使用者（参考类别）观察到的死亡率的0.80倍和0.73倍。幼畜死亡率也有类似结果，部分使用者和完全使用者类别的估计发病率比分别为0.81和0.77。部分使用者和完全使用者类别牲畜养殖户的出栏率分别比参考类别高1.24倍和1.21倍。总之，我们证明了使用由丹麦教会援助组织培训的兽医助理服务的养殖户的小反刍动物群的健康和生产参数有显著改善，强调了这种可持续且有效的私人兽医服务提供系统在阿富汗的重要性。
