ADAPTING THE COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH TO ANIMAL DISEASE MANAGEMENT IN THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT POLE 3 IN THE NORTH-WEST OF BENIN

The objective of the study was to establish a community-based management of animal disease in the Research and Development sites of Kouya (Boukombe) and Pingou (Materi) in north-western Benin. A thematic Participatory Rural Appraisal was conducted in 2018-2019 at the Kouya and Pingou Research and Development (R&D) sites in order to characterize the methods of animal raising and disease management in these two villages.The results led stakeholders to develop a community-based mechanism for managing these animal diseases through the establishment of a village animal disease management committee in each of the two villages,with representation from the different neighbour hoods/hamlets. Discussions with in these committees supported by researchers led to the organization of poultry vaccination campaigns by and for the communities, including one in Kouya and three in Pingou. These campaigns covered 35% and 17% of households in Kouya and Pingou respectively, and enabled 6,776 birds to be vaccinated in two years, including 1,100 in Kouya and 5,676 in Pingou. The synergy between the village management committees and the village poultry vaccinators has improved the accessibility of vaccination for agro-livestock farmers by reducing the cost of the vaccine dose by 50%, from USD 0.17 to USD 0.08.