On June 7, 2024, following the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the African Union - Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), a key meeting was held to discuss priority areas for collaboration. The MOU outlines several areas of joint focus, including policy enforcement and advocacy, disease prevention, control, and eradication, as well as dialogue and engagement.
The meeting, hosted by AU-IBAR and led by Dr. Huyam Salih (Director) and Dr. Mary Mbole-Kariuki (Technical Expert), brought together a team of technical experts from GALVmed. The GALVmed team included Dr. Steve Wilson (Director, R&D), Edith Moroti (Associate Director – Outreach and Partnerships), Dr. Adelaide Ayoyi (East African Community Mutual Recognition Procedure Coordinator & Regulatory Scientist), and Nina Henning (Team Lead, AgResults Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Challenge Project).
Dr. Steve Wilson outlined GALVmed's focus areas, which include product development, commercial development, and creating enabling environments. He also mentioned the organization's efforts in producing combination vaccines, particularly beneficial for small-scale livestock producers. Dr. Huyam emphasized the importance of this collaboration, especially with the upcoming Pan-African Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) programme, which aims to eradicate PPR in Africa by 2030 through various interventions, including vaccinations.
Key highlights from the meeting included:
1. Increasing private sector engagement to improve animal health delivery systems.
2. Enhancing technical capacity building for animal health technicians and paravets.
3. Strengthening last-mile delivery infrastructure to ensure vaccine efficacy, particularly in marginalized areas.
4. Identifying priority diseases at continental and regional levels, including Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), Rabies, Rift Valley Fever (RVF), Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP), African Swine Fever (ASF), Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Anthrax, Brucellosis, and Animal African Trypanosomiasis (AAT).
5. Establishing and operationalizing coordinated regional vaccination programs that consider seasonal livestock movement, vector distribution, and climate patterns.
6. Monitoring vaccination coverage and assessing the economic and socio-economic impacts of vaccination.
The discussions provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen unified interventions for the African animal health delivery systems by AU-IBAR and GALVmed. Both organizations reiterated their commitment to ongoing collaboration and partnership.
Picture: @AU-IBAR
From Left to Right: Edith Moroti (GALVmed), Nina Henning (GALVmed);– Dr. Huyam Salih (DIrector AU-IBAR); Dr. Steven Wilson (Director of R&D – GALVmed); Dr Adelaide Ayoyi (GALVmed) and Dr. Mary Mbole-Kariuki (AU-IBAR).
