Establishment of a multi-sectoral strategy for the control of brucellosis in the main peri-urban dairy production zones of West and Central Africa

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Brucellosis is the world's most widespread zoonosis, imposing a substantial burden on the livelihoods of poor people as a result of human disease and reduced livestock productivity. However, brucellosis is rarely a priority for health systems and for this reason the WHO classifies brucellosis as a "neglected endemic zoonosis". The main routes by which people can be infected are consumption of contaminated dairy products and direct contact with infected animals. Therefore, the control of human brucellosis depends on its control in animals, mainly ruminants, while its detrimental effects include both animal and human disease. Although a range of tools (diagnostics, vaccines) are available and have been used, sometimes successfully, to control brucellosis in different parts of the world the disease remains present at high levels in others. It is likely that failure to control the disease is due to a combination of factors, some of them technical (e.g. quality and appropriateness of different vaccines for different settings), others socioeconomic (livestock keepers perceptions towards the disease and incentives for its control) or institutional (priority given by veterinary services to the disease, lack of interaction between animal health and public health services). In this project we target one of the livestock systems in which Brucellosis is likely to pose the heaviest burden on vulnerable populations in Sub-Saharan Africa: dairy farms supplying milk to rapidly growing urban populations in West and Central Africa, and we will do it by integrating a range of disciplines so that we consider the different biological, social and institutional dimensions of the disease that are relevant for its control. We will focus on the first phase of control of the disease: the reduction of its prevalence by means of vaccination, since total eradication requires conditions that are not currently met in the target area. The so-called peri-urban dairy farms are an important source of wealth in poor settings and a source of protein in increasingly urbanised African populations. Furthermore, there is evidence that this region has the highest prevalence of ruminant brucellosis in Sub-Saharan Africa.We will carry out a series of field studies to measure the burden of brucellosis in livestock productivity and human health in the main areas for peri-urban dairy production in the 15 target countries, to identify routes by which people become infected, to quantify the economic consequences of the disease for farmers and to understand farmers' perceptions and attitudes toward the disease. In parallel we will carry out a series of training activities and we will work with local institutions to identify barriers for effective and sustainable control and to overcome those. The results will be used to design and carry out 2-year control programs based on vaccination in a small number of settings. The effectiveness of these control programs will be carefully monitored and the results widely shared within and outside the region.Central to this project is the Interstate School of Veterinary Science and Medicine of Dakar (EISMV) a regional educational hub that involves 15 West and Central African countries. EISMV academics will work in partnership with UK-based researchers from two leading veterinary and medical educational institutions: Royal Veterinary College and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and with the international reference laboratory for brucellosis at Animal Health Veterinary Laboratories Agency. The Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), an organization which works globally to facilitate access of poor livestock keepers to affordable livestock vaccines, medicines and diagnostics will also be an essential part of the consortium contributing to the translation of our research findings into tangible benefits for vulnerable populations and livestock keepers in poor countries.