@FAOGhana/David Youngs

FAO reinforces wildlife zoonotic disease surveillance in Ghana

Human-wildlife conflicts constitute major issues affecting livestock and humans in Ghana. More than 75 percent of emerging and re-emerging diseases are zoonotic (and transmitted by a variety of routes including direct contact (rabies), through bites by arthropod vectors (malaria), via food (salmonella) or the environment (anthrax).

Infectious diseases at the human-wildlife-livestock interface threaten wildlife species and populations, impact livestock trade and economies, agricultural livelihoods, and pose a global pandemic threat as recently seen with ebola or avian influenza.

The emerging and re-emergence of zoonoses require development of capacity of game rangers to recognize some of the zoonotic diseases in the wildlife in order to provide more informed data on wildlife animal diseases that they encounter during patrol duties.

To train and sensitize wildlife staff in National Parks and Zoos on priority zoonotic diseases and disease surveillance for early detection and reporting, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has organized in collaboration with the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, a National Workshop to reinforce wildlife guards, rangers, frontline staff and other collaborators’ capacities on wild animal disease surveillance in Ghana from 19 to 23 December 2019. 

The five-day training was attended by 25 participants drawn from 16 Wildlife Protected Areas (PAS), FAO and the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. With this training, the staff in protected wildlife areas in the country is expected to increase capacities to regularly conduct sustainable wildlife management disease surveillance for early reporting.

As part of the training workshop, two field visits were conducted. The first one inside the Mole National Park to observe wildlife in their natural environment and note issues affected by environmental challenges and the second to a community that shares border with the Mole National Park. This was to allow participants interact with livestock farmers in the community of Mognori, to find out on how 

human-wildlife conflict (HWC) affects their livelihoods due to diseases suspected to be contracted from wild animals and crop destruction by wild animals.

At the opening ceremony, the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Country Team Lead in Ghana, Garba Maina Ahmed, said “This is first  of the series of trainings planned for the wildlife guards of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission”. In addition, he said “FAO ECTAD will be collaborating with the Wildlife Division to harmonize its existing reporting system to include the FAO real-time disease reporting tool – the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i), currently being used by the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture”.

In his opening remarks, Asiedu Baah, Chief Veterinary Officer of the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture noted “the need for the game rangers of the Wildlife Division be abreast with zoonotic diseases so that they can report to the Veterinary Services Directorate.

The representative of the Acting Executive Director, Umaru Farouk, Wildlife Division of Forestry Commission, also remarked that “this is the first of its kind of training of wildlife guards for the Wildlife Division and is highly important due to the nature of work and challenges facing the frontline staff of the Division”.

He indicated that “this was not just a training session, but an awareness and reassurance session that the inherited resources are managed properly”. He further indicated that the various organizations will find solutions to the problem of HWC in terms of disease shared between wildlife and livestock in the human wildlife interface.

The training was organized by the ECTAD unit of the FAO Representation in Ghana, with support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The national workshop to reinforce wildlife guards and other collaborators’ capacities on wild animal disease surveillance has been jointly facilitated with resource persons from the  Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission in collaboration with Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

 FAO fights challenges to address human-wildlife-livestock threats

Some of the main challenges to address human-wildlife-livestock threats  in the national parks in the country include inadequate financial resources (for equipment, staffing, transport, etc.) weak, inadequate  and outdated legislation and inadequate skills and capacity  in managing these threats, which this training will address.

In 2005, wildlife staff were trained in Ghana, under the Pan African Control of Epizootics (PACE) program. However, no training has been conducted for them again since then. In 2012, the country developed its Forest and Wildlife Policy. The national workshop to reinforce wildlife guards and other collaborators’ capacities on wild animal disease surveillance will build the capacity of staff of wildlife in using tools for data collection for value chain and surveillance for priority zoonotic diseases (PZD). It will also support the equipment of the wildlife sector to prevent spillover events from wildlife to animal or human populations.