Teufel Nils, Korir Luke, Hammond James, van Wijk Mark, Kiara Henry
Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
Sustainable Livestock Systems, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
Front Vet Sci. 2021 Nov 11;8:639762. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.639762. eCollection 2021.
East Coast Fever is a critical cattle disease in East and Southern Africa which is currently mainly controlled through frequent chemical removal of ticks, the disease vector. However, a vaccine conveying life-long immunity has existed for some time, known as the infection and treatment method (ITM), although it has so far not been widely adopted because of its cost, demanding distribution system and regulatory reservations. Also, despite having proved effective on the animal level, the promoters of the vaccine have not been able to show much evidence of its benefits on the herd, farm and household levels. This study, based on a cross-sectional survey of 994 cattle keepers throughout Tanzania, aims to provide such evidence by comparing indicators of herd productivity, of farm management and success as well as of household livelihoods between households that have adopted the ITM vaccine for some years with those that have only recently adopted it. Econometric models identify the contribution of ITM adoption to indicator values together with various other determining factors amongst 277 long-term adopters of ITM and the control group of 118 recent adopters as well as 118 matched farmers without access to ITM. The results confirm that ITM adoption is positively associated with all three indicators of herd-productivity considered in this study. However, it does not support any of the three indicators of farm management and only one out of four indicators representing farm success. Nevertheless, the adoption of ITM shows a positive association with all four indicators of household livelihood. Investigating the chain of intermediate outcomes, indicators of herd productivity, such as milk yield, are significantly linked to higher feed expenses, contributing to increased livestock productivity and ultimately income and food availability. Overall, these results therefore support the promotion of ITM as a beneficial technology for the sustainable development of rural livestock keepers.
东海岸热是东非和南非一种严重的牛病，目前主要通过频繁化学清除疾病传播媒介蜱虫来控制。然而，一种能提供终身免疫力的疫苗——感染与治疗方法（ITM）已经存在一段时间了，尽管由于成本、苛刻的分发系统和监管方面的保留意见，它至今尚未得到广泛应用。此外，尽管该疫苗在动物层面已被证明有效，但其推广者未能充分证明其在畜群、农场和家庭层面的益处。这项基于对坦桑尼亚994名养牛户进行横断面调查的研究，旨在通过比较已采用ITM疫苗数年的家庭与最近才采用该疫苗的家庭在畜群生产力、农场管理与成效以及家庭生计等方面的指标，来提供此类证据。计量经济学模型确定了采用ITM对指标值的贡献，以及277名长期采用ITM的用户、118名近期采用ITM的对照组用户以及118名无法获得ITM的匹配农户中的各种其他决定因素。结果证实，采用ITM与本研究中考虑的所有三个畜群生产力指标呈正相关。然而，它对农场管理的三个指标均无支持作用，在代表农场成功的四个指标中仅支持一个。尽管如此，采用ITM与家庭生计的所有四个指标均呈正相关。通过调查中间结果链发现，畜群生产力指标，如产奶量，与较高的饲料成本显著相关，这有助于提高牲畜生产力，最终增加收入和食物供应。总体而言，这些结果因此支持推广ITM，将其作为有利于农村养牛户可持续发展的一项有益技术。
