Prevention is cheaper than cure: One Health in practice for sustainable livestock production in Sub-Saharan Africa
Int. Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Time: Tuesday, 19. January 2021, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (CET)
Languages: English, German
Summary:
This expert panel primarily addressed the second of four areas of action mentioned in the GFFA background paper ‘Avoid future pandemics’, while recognising that the other two action areas: ‘Strengthen climate resilience of food systems’ and ‘Achieve climate mitigation goals’ are inter-dependent. The panel included a short video introduction along with an expert panel discussion that included a number of policy specialists.
The consensus of these experts was that livestock production plays a major role in supporting livelihoods, food security and resilience of the more than 1 billion people who work within the livestock sector. The panel recommended One Health as an essential approach to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (Zero hunger) and should be incorporated fully into policy making to detect and prevent threats at the human, animal and environment interface. They called for the implementation of appropriate production methods to guarantee food safety and animal health and stressed the need to support smallholder livestock farmers in developing countries by helping them to gain access to investment, technology and capacity building for good husbandry practices, hygiene and biosecurity. Around the area of wet-markets, research has shown it is better to improve prevention and mitigation measure than out right bans.