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£5.5m funding for Africa’s livestock
An initial programme aims to reduce death rates and reproductive losses in dairy cattle.
Vets delivering initiative to improve animal health

A multi-million pound initiative is underway to improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in sub-Saharan Africa.

Eight experts have been recruited to drive the Supporting Evidence Based Interventions (SEBI) initiative, which is based at the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

The £5.5 million project aims to boost the livelihoods of livestock farmers using evidence-based technologies that offer sustainable solutions to their challenges.

An initial programme aims to reduce death rates and reproductive losses in dairy cattle in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Sub-grants will help research groups to explore the causes of these losses. The University of Glasgow has received the first of these grants to build a disease surveillance platform in Tanzania.

A second programme will facilitate data gathering and the development of tools to better track livestock performance. An international network of practitioners, the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community to standardise data management across borders.

Finally, a third strand of the initiative will fund researchers to evaluate veterinary interventions for their use in developing countries. The University of Guelph has been granted £125,000 to fund field trials of a hand-held device that can detect animal diseases. Using this portable sensor, dairy farmers can quickly diagnose diseases in cows from a small amount of blood or milk.

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Reporting service for dead wild birds updated

News Story 1
 The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has updated its online reporting service for dead wild birds.

The new version allows those reporting a dead bird to drop a pin on a map when reporting the location. It also includes a wider range of wild bird species groups to select from when describing the bird.

The online service, which helps APHA to monitor the spread of diseases such as avian influenza, can be accessed here. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
NI chief vet urges bluetongue vigilance

Northern Ireland's chief veterinary officer (CVO) has urged farmers to be vigilant for signs of bluetongue, after the Animal and Plant Health Agency warned there was a very high probability of further cases in Great Britain.

There have been 126 confirmed cases of bluetongue virus serotype 3 in England since November 2023, with no cases reported in Northern Ireland. The movement of live ruminants from Great Britain to Northern Ireland is currently suspended.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the virus is most likely to enter Northern Ireland through infected animals or germplasm (semen or ova) being imported.

Brian Dooher, Northern Ireland's CVO, said: "Surveillance for this disease within Northern Ireland has been increased to assist with detection at the earliest opportunity which will facilitate more effective control measures."

Farmers should report any suspicions of the disease to their private veterinary practitioner, the DAERA Helpline on 0300 200 7840 or their local DAERA Direct Veterinary Office.