Plant-based solutions to integrate livestock disease control, nutrition and environmental sustainability in Africa

以植物为基础的解决方案将非洲牲畜疾病控制、营养和环境可持续性结合起来

• 批准号: BB/S014748/1
• 负责人: Eric Morgan
• 金额: $ 143.83万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FS014748%2F1
• 关键词: Plant; based; solutions; integrate; livestock

Smallholder livestock production is crucial to the livelihoods of rural populations throughout Africa, but is experiencing many challenges. Climate change is making nutritional resources from grazing more unpredictable, and at the same time increasing threats from parasitic and other diseases. Investing in greater inputs to stave off these threats is out of the question for most subsistence farmers and is unsustainable. Better ways of running integrated animal-plant systems are urgently needed. To that end, this project seeks to build on successful previous work, in which targeted treatment of individual sheep and goats within a herd achieved substantial uplift in health and productivity with much lower input costs than standard whole-herd treatment. Further improvements to the system would be to replace chemical anthelmintics with plants shown to reduce parasite burdens, which grow locally and could be cultivated or sustainably harvested. Research on such plants shows a long list of candidates but evaluation of effects in the field under real farming conditions are very limited. These plants can help bridge the nutrition gap also by increasing protein availability, but assessments have rarely considered antiparasitic and nutritional benefits together, especially with native plants in Africa. We will train farmers to apply targeted selective antiparasitic treatment strategies based on established field guides for monitoring impacts of infection on health, and compare the need for treatment and the health and performance levels between herds using antiparasitic drugs only and those that integrate 'bioactive' plants species into their feeding practices. A key benefit of using plants to reduce parasite burdens is reduction of environmental contamination with infective parasite stages, and therefore general reduction in infection levels, benefitting all animals sharing grazing. Recent advances in epidemiological modelling enable rigorous evaluation of this indirect effect of plant use for the first time, as a function of climate and management, and we propose to apply those models to assess impacts under current and future climates. Models will be extended to consider where and in what seasons the evaluated interventions would be of most use, and how they should be configured to maximise resilience of smallholder production systems under current and future conditions. Finally, benefits of healthier livestock for household livelihoods are potentially immense but are hard to measure for subsistence farmers, in which improved productivity does not necessarily translate into cash profit, but has subtle effects on food and economic security. Integrated into the field trials, we plan to evaluate connections between livestock health and household wellbeing using socio-economic interviews. Outcomes will be a toolkit for application of targeted treatment approaches and nutritional intervention that makes the most of locally available plant resources, an improved evidence base for plant-focused interventions in these systems, measures of livelihood impacts within the study and potential when upscaled, and projections of epidemiological risks and benefits across Africa. As a result of this project, tools will be created for rapid evaluation of and adaptation to disease and nutrition threats throughout Africa, to support sustainable production and food security in the poorest areas.

小农畜牧业生产对整个非洲农村人口的生计至关重要，但正面临许多挑战。气候变化使放牧产生的营养资源变得更加不可预测，同时也增加了寄生虫病和其他疾病的威胁。对大多数自给自足的农民来说，投资更大的投入以避免这些威胁是不可能的，也是不可持续的。迫切需要更好的方式来运行集成的动植物系统。为此，该项目力求在以前成功工作的基础上再接再厉，在这些工作中，对羊群中的个别绵羊和山羊进行有针对性的治疗，大大提高了健康和生产力，投入成本比标准的整群治疗低得多。该系统的进一步改进将是用植物取代化学驱虫剂，这些植物被证明可以减少寄生虫的负担，这些植物在当地生长，可以种植或可持续收获。对这种植物的研究表明，候选植物有很长的名单，但在实际耕作条件下对田间效果的评估非常有限。这些植物还可以通过增加蛋白质供应来帮助弥补营养缺口，但评估很少将抗寄生虫和营养益处结合起来考虑，特别是与非洲本土植物一起。我们将培训农民根据已建立的用于监测感染对健康影响的现场指南，应用有针对性的选择性抗寄生虫治疗策略，并比较只使用抗寄生虫药的牛群和在其饲养实践中加入“生物活性”植物物种的牛群之间的治疗需求以及健康和性能水平。利用植物减少寄生虫负担的一个关键好处是减少了感染寄生虫阶段的环境污染，从而总体上降低了感染水平，使所有共享放牧的动物受益。流行病学模型的最新进展使得首次能够严格评估植物使用作为气候和管理的函数的这种间接影响，我们建议应用这些模型来评估当前和未来气候下的影响。将扩展模型，以考虑评估的干预措施在哪里和在什么季节最有用，以及应如何配置这些干预措施，以最大限度地提高小农生产系统在当前和未来条件下的复原力。最后，更健康的牲畜对家庭生计的好处可能是巨大的，但对于自给自足的农民来说很难衡量，因为生产率的提高不一定转化为现金利润，但对粮食和经济安全有微妙的影响。整合到实地试验中，我们计划通过社会经济访谈来评估牲畜健康和家庭福祉之间的联系。成果将是一个工具包，用于最大限度地利用当地现有植物资源的有针对性的治疗方法和营养干预措施，为这些系统中以植物为重点的干预措施提供更好的证据基础，在研究中衡量生计影响和扩大规模时的潜力，以及对整个非洲的流行病风险和好处进行预测。作为这一项目的结果，将创建工具，以便对整个非洲的疾病和营养威胁进行快速评估和适应，以支持最贫穷地区的可持续生产和粮食安全。

项目成果

Response to resources and parasites depends on health status in extensively grazed sheep.

对资源和寄生虫的反应取决于广泛放牧的羊的健康状况。

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2905
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Proceedings. Biological sciences
• 作者: Liddell C

Low-cost molecular methods to characterise gastrointestinal nematode co-infections of goats in Africa.

• DOI: 10.1186/s13071-023-05816-y
• 发表时间: 2023-06-29
• 期刊: Parasites & vectors
• 影响因子: 3.2

Site-Specific Forage Management of Sericea Lespedeza: Geospatial Technology-Based Forage Quality and Yield Enhancement Model Development

胡枝子定点牧草管理：基于地理空间技术的牧草质量和产量提高模型开发

• DOI: 10.3390/agriculture10090419
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Agriculture
• 作者: Panda S

Goat health and management for improved smallholders' livelihoods in central Malawi - A socioeconomic analysis of rural households

• DOI: 10.1016/j.smallrumres.2023.107114
• 发表时间: 2023-10-27
• 期刊: SMALL RUMINANT RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 1.8
• 作者: Airs, Paul M.;Ventura-Cordero, Javier;Safalaoh, Andrews C. L.
• 通讯作者: Safalaoh, Andrews C. L.