THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

31 August 2013

Participatory disease surveillance (PDS) was conducted in the Gandaki River Basin to explore the impacts of climate change on the pathogen Haemoprotozoans and its associated tick borne disease in livestock. This work is part of the research dissertation of Dr. Saluna Pokhrel, an MVSc student at Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS), Rampur who has been conducting her research under the project ‘Adaptation to Climate Change by Livestock Smallholders in Gandaki River Basin’. The PDS tools including semi-structured interview followed by ranking and scoring of livestock health concerned were applied among a total of 27 participants in Dhading. The participants were local farmers and members of the village women’s group, animal health workers, and livestock stakeholders who showed great interest and curiosity. Dr. Chandra Dhakal, Senior Livestock Development Officer at Department of Livestock Services (DoLS), Government of Nepal, who has been mentoring Dr. Pokhrel for her research, helped facilitate the discussion.

In first session, open ended questions were the basis for qualitative ranking of animal health problems and disease incidence and severity were scored in a very participatory way. Visualization tools were used to analyze local perceptions about farming practices, point of occurrence and the seasonal variations of diseases and risk factors. Livestock diseases including ecto-parasites and endo-parasites, mastitis, infertility, FMD were identified as the main problems of the area. The prevalence of ecto-parasites might increase the risk of Haemoprotozoans, as will be confirmed by laboratory tests of animal blood. It is believed that climate change may favour the conditions favourable for increase the breeding of arthropod vectors like ticks and flies, which transmit Haemoprotozoan infections.

In a second session of discussions with stakeholders, the participants presented their problems and queries about the livestock and diseases. The research team shared ideas about the prevention and treatment of diseases at the farmer level focusing on resources for proper diagnosis, treatment, and medication. The lack of knowledge and awareness is directly affecting the prevalence and risk of diseases. Farmers were glad to know about the techniques of disease identification, preventions and treatment using simple and easily accessible technologies. For example: Regular dipping of teats in tincture iodine solution after milking decreases the risk of mastitis. Dr. Pokhrel will be conducting more PDSs in other districts of the GRB (Syangja and Kapilvastu) for her research.

‘Adaptation to Climate Change by Livestock Smallholders in Gandaki River Basin’. This is a project of The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), City University of New York (CUNY) and Colorado State University (CSU). The whole project is being supported by the award “Adaptation for Climate Change by Livestock Smallholders in Gandaki River Basin” from the USAID Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program (LCC CRSP) at Colorado State University (CSU) to Principal Investigator Prof. Nir Krakauer at CUNY. This project is undertaken in close coordination with the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Department of Livestock Services (DoLS), Agriculture and Forestry University, and Tribhuvan University.