FAO in Sierra Leone

FAO supports Peste des Petits Ruminants Control and Eradication Efforts in Sierra Leone

Ceremony of hand over of one million PPR vaccines PPR, @FAO/Austine Bitek
23/04/2021

FAO donates one million doses of Peste des Petits Ruminants vaccines to the Government, and launches mass livestock vaccination campaign

Bombali District - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) handed over 1,000,000 doses of vaccines and diluents to the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) to support roll out of mass vaccination of sheep and goats against peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in the country.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious disease of sheep and goats. The country continues to experience rampant outbreaks of Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs), particularly PPR, among others, affecting almost all districts,resulting in significant socio-economic impacts and loss of livelihood assets. However, although it does not infect people, the disease, which is now endemic in the country, has major effects on people due to the severe impact of the disease on food security, community resilience and livelihoods.

In this regard, FAO launched a mass livestock vaccination campaign against PPR with the donation of one million doses of PPR vaccines and funds totalling to USD 20 000.

Speaking during the handover, Mrs. Nyabenyi Tito Tipo, said that “FAO has been supporting the Government to control and eradicate PPR in the country”. She further stated that “This donation has been possible thanks to the FAO Global PPR Secretariat ,with funding support from the PPR Global Eradication Programme (GEP) Project funded by the French Government”. She also explained that “vaccination is key to preventing and controlling PPR in high risk or endemic countries like Sierra Leone. This should be done routinely to cover at least more than 70% of the small ruminants population to reduce the impact of the disease, coupled with routine pre and post vaccination sero-monitoring to assess the effectiveness of vaccination program”.

The Honorable Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Abu Bakar Karim, while receiving the vaccines, said that PPR vaccines from FAO was a very timely move. “This donation has come at a very opportune time to support the Government’s efforts to control and eradicate PPR. We have had numerous outbreaks of the disease severly impacting on food security and livelihoods particulary on rural farmers who are dependent on livestock.” He also thanked FAO for the continued support to strengthen capacity of the animal health sector in the country.

Previously in 2019, Sierra Leone benefited from a donation of 500,000 doses of PPR vaccines and diagnostic test kits (C- Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) from the FAO/World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) PPR Global Eradication Programme Secretariat to control the disease. FAO had previously supported the development and validation of the national PPR control strategy in 2019, in alignment to the Global PPR strategy that aims to control and eradicate PPR and other major small ruminants diseases by the year 2030. The mass livestock vaccination campaign will be conducted in all the 16 districts alongside active surveillance for Priority Zoonotic Diseases (PZDs) in high-risk areas/hotspots in the country where biological samples will be collected and tested for various diseases at the Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL).

The objective of the active surveillance is to monitor the occurrence and distribution of PZDs and control them before escalating into widespread outbreaks/epidemics or spill over into the human population from animals. In addition to PPR vaccines, FAO also donated 3,500 doses of dog rabies vaccines and 20 doses of human antirabies to protect the most at risk personnel including the laboratory and frontline field officers. Rabies is endemic in Sierra Leone and has been ranked as one of the top PZD in the country. Dog-bites and suspected rabies cases in humans have been on the rise in the recent past, as documented by the surveillance reports in the Ministries of Health and Agriculture. “I am impressed to learn that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will also provide us with dog rabies vaccines besides PPR vaccines for our sheep and goats. I still recall when my own brother died from rabies because of lack of vaccines. We shall now sensitize our people on availability of dog rabies vaccines so that our dogs are vaccinated,” said Bai Shebora Kasangha II, the Paramount Chief, Bombali Shebora chiefdom during the event.

The representative of the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) during the event, Dr. Saidu Kanu, said that “It is a wonderful day to witness the hand over of PPR vaccines and the launch of this mass vaccination campaign. PPR is a major problem in the country. For a very long time, the country has been losing goats and sheep because of PPR. Our people depend on livestock for their livelihoods. The University is also committed to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to conduct a successful mass vaccination campaign through providing students to support in vaccine delivery”. He thanked FAO and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the drive to control animal diseases in the country.

With funding support from USAID, under the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) programme, the Peste des Petits Ruminants Global Eradication Programme (PPR-GEP) highlights the technical and policy tools foreseen as appropriate to lay the foundation for and commencement of PPR eradication by reducing the prevalence of PPR in currently infected countries. The programme also develops capacity of national Veterinary Services, which are the key players in the successful implementation of the PPR GEP.

Find out more on PPR: http://www.fao.org/3/i6316e/i6316e.pdf

For more information, please contact:

Germain Bobo
Country Team Leader FAO Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD)
Sierra Leone

Yanira Santana
Regional Communications and Outreach Bureau FAO ECTAD
Regional West and Central Africa

Uzman Unis Bah
Communication Specialist | FAO Sierra Leone