In August 2021, Avian Flu was declared in Mondoukou, a village located in the department of Grand Bassam in southern Côte d’Ivoire. It is not the first time that the H5N1 virus, responsible for Avian Flu, has been discovered in Côte d’Ivoire. In 2006, Ivorian populations experienced the first cases of Avian Flu. “Avian flu in its various forms primarily affects poultry with human transmission in cases of non-compliance with biosecurity standards and barrier measures. When the disease appears on a farm, the recommended measure is systematic slaughter in order to avoid transmission to neighboring farms and to limit the risk for humans,” said Professor Bassirou Bonfoh, a veterinary epidemiologist and Director of Afrique One, a pan-African research consortium for capacity building in “One Health”.
In July 2021, a month before Avian Flu was officially declared, poultry farmers in Mondoukou started to observe high rates of mortality. “There is a lady who raises laying hens,” says Hamadi Idriss Ali, one of the farmers in Mondoukou. “As these laying hens were dying a lot, she went to the veterinary services to report the problem. Subsequently, samples were taken. The results were positive. Then, the veterinary services came for the slaughter.”
According to the decree N°42 /P-GBM/CAB of August 05, 2021 that declared the infection of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza of subtype H5N1 in the department of Grand-Bassam, the slaughter applies on a territory of 3 km from a center of infection. For 17 days (from August 14 to September 2, 2021), the veterinary services proceeded to slaughter poultry in more than 100 farms in the department of Grand Bassam. But, in order to succeed in this operation, the veterinary services had to work collaboratively with farmers. “They gave [us] posters to stick on the farms so that we would not sell the chickens and would leave them there until they came for slaughter,” recalled Traore Ahmed, a local farmer in Mondoukou. “Then, a team came dressed in white, with Dr Silué Nagnon, the Bassam Departmental Director of Health, and proceeded to slaughter the chickens.”
“Being at the animal-human interface, Avian Flu management involves not only the public health and veterinary sectors but also, and above all, stakeholders in the sector and local communities and authorities,” said Professor Bassirou Bonfoh.
Multi-sectoral coordination to curb the spread of the disease
Since 2019, Côte d’Ivoire has committed through a decree to support the institutionalization and ownership of the “One Health” approach which aims to adopt a holistic approach to respond to public health events, such as emerging high-impact infectious diseases at the human-animal-environment interface. “It is an added value in terms of human and animal health, financial savings or environmental services accessible through cooperation in human medicine and veterinary medicine compared to two medicines operating separately,” said Zinsstag, Schelling, Waltner-Toews, Whittaker and Tanner, all researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute of Public Health (Swiss TPH).
10 years before the decree institutionalizing the One Health approach in Côte d’Ivoire, various initiatives to strengthen the capacity of both individual and institutional actors on One Health were carried out in Côte d’Ivoire by the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS) and Afrique One.
Fighting Avian Flu
The coordination of the fight against Avian Flu in Mondoukou was ensured at the central level by a technical committee chaired by the Director of Veterinary Services. This committee was composed of representatives of the ministries in charge of defense, animal and fishery resources, interior and security, agriculture and rural development, environment, economy and finance, budget and state portfolio, health, water and forestry, and representatives of professional organizations of the poultry sector. At the local level, the Prefect of the Department of Grand-Bassam was responsible for coordinating the fight against the disease. Subsequently, an ad’ hoc committee for the fight against Avian Flu was set up.
On the sanitary level, a section oversaw the organization of sanitary culls and investigations. It was composed of the Deputy Director of Animal Health, the Departmental Director of Animal and Fishery Resources of Grand-Bassam, and the Departmental Director of Health. The Head of the Army’s Veterinary Services was responsible for coordinating the security of field operations with the gendarmerie brigade and the police station.
On the social level, the Grand-Bassam town hall, village chiefs, poultry industry associations and opinion leaders were heavily involved in communication and awareness raising. The village chiefs donated land for the burial of the slaughtered poultry. Opinion leaders and heads of associations (president of women, president of youth, etc.), traveled through neighborhoods and radio stations to raise awareness of the health instructions to be followed.
According to Dr. Vessaly Kallo, “The participatory approach in the response to the Avian Flu declared on 05 August 2021 in Mondoukou has paid off. Thanks to everyone’s commitment, other outbreaks of the disease were detected in time by the veterinary services and early stamping-out measures took place to prevent the spread of these outbreaks. This response resulted in controlling the outbreaks of infection, thus making it possible to be in the downward phase of the epidemiological curve of the disease in our country.”
Economic activity in agony
Avian Flu has caused considerable economic losses for the poultry industry in Cote d’Ivoire. According to the Ministry of Animal and Fisheries Resources (MIRAH), the Ivorian poultry industry which, in 2017 had more than 96,112,945 heads, a national egg production of 224,842 tons, representing a turnover of 250 billion CFA Francs (40,333,000 USD), has been strongly tested in July and August 2021 with the appearance of massive poultry mortalities. To revive the sector, the Ivorian government has compensated up to 637,904,200 CFA francs (1 024 072 USD), to the farmers who have been affected by the slaughter.
Despite this gesture, has been difficult for farmers to resume their activities after the July 2021 outbreak of Avian Flu. Some have simply closed their farms. On the other hand, there are some who have been forced to change their livelihoods. This is the case of Didier Christian. Formerly a poultry farmer, he is now producing and selling vegetable products. “After the passage of the disease, I lost all my chickens. And in the same season, the flu also attacked my rabbits. Today, I am weakened, and I am looking for funds to resume activities. I produce a little bit of vegetable products. I grow a few vegetables, chili, tomato to be able to survive.”
In the latter part of 2022, farmers have seen a high mortality rate of their chickens. Officially, another Avian Flu outbreak has not been declared again. However, these new poultry losses are like an uppercut knocking down poultry farmers trying to get back on their feet after the 2021 outbreak. “This new wave of mortality [has] cost me more than 5,000 chickens. I had to abandon my farm,” said Awa Diakité, a poultry farmer in Mondoukou. In 2021, according to her, she had lost more than 2,000 chickens.
Beyond the farmers, other people and trades have also been affected by the outbreak. These include chicken dealers and restaurant owners. The detection of Avian Flu has had a negative impact on production and therefore on the supply of poultry products. “Currently, there is a big risk that the supply and market supplies do not follow the demand. Already, an upward trend in the price of poultry is noticeable in the markets, and this trend is likely to increase if the production chains do not fully recover to their optimal level. The majority of the affected farms are still empty and their employees are unemployed. This is a real handicap for food security,” said Dongo, a restaurant owner in Mondoukou.
Training and collaboration: the keys to effective surveillance and response
As the Ivorian saying goes: “advice does not advise but the consequences do.” The negative consequences of the Avian Flu in Mondoukou have led farmers to draw lessons for the survival of their livelihoods. Many of the farmers, now facing a second outbreak, are in favor of receiving training in biosecurity from health authorities and experts. “I learned breeding on the job from friends who were poultry farmers. I didn’t get any other training besides that. But I am ready to be trained, because we never finished learning,” said Didier Christian. Awa Diakité added: “We need good training for farmers. For example, I can maintain my farm as I can with my disinfectants and other products. On the neighbor’s farm, he can do the same. But elsewhere, if the other does not apply it because he does not master, it is complicated.”
In addition to training, import control is a lesson Mondoukou farmers have gleaned after the 2021 outbreak of Avian Flu. “The lesson we can learn is to control the importation of eggs and chickens. When we notice that one of us has imported poultry, we try to call the veterinary service to take samples from the chickens to make sure they are doing well. If not, we ask them to remove the chickens. There are also fines that are paid if the rules are broken”, said Hamadi Idriss Ali.
Besides the need to train farmers on biosecurity and control the importation of eggs and chickens, experts agree on the relevance of collaboration when it comes to preventing and mitigating sanitary crises. According to Professor Bassirou Bonfoh, “outbreaks are complex, multisectoral and multidimensional problems. Therefore, solutions must be co-designed and co-developed by all stakeholders through the pooling of knowledge, logistics, human and financial resources.”
“Multi-sectoral collaboration must place special emphasis on involving communities in the prevention of avian influenza outbreaks in Côte d’Ivoire. Risky practices and limited knowledge are elements that do not protect us from future epidemics. Training and continuous sensitization of the poultry sector actors are necessary for an efficient fight”, said Dr. Danièle Konan, Social Scientist and Cote d’lvoire country team lead of STOP Spillover – a USAID-funded global project which is working to prevent the spillover of viral zoonotic pathogens
Dr. Vessaly Kallo added, “The One Health approach through the experience of multisectoral collaboration has enabled us to highlight areas for improvement to be even more effective in the prevention and response to epizootics. These include capacity building of Veterinary Services, revitalization of the Sanitary Defense Group, awareness and training of actors in the poultry sector, implementation of simulation exercises with a view to better ownership of actors and an update of the contingency plan.”
This story was produced by ASCA with the support of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.
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