Lofa County Resilience Network Working Group

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Zinnah (left) and Mr. Abdala exchange documents following the signing and launching of the project

thenewslib.com/news - by Jimmey C. Fahngon
November 23, 2015 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture has signed US$318,000 agreement to launch a project aimed at combating the Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) outbreak in the country.

This disease is well known as a plague which affects small ruminants such as goats and sheep.

The project is being funded as a Technical Cooperation agreement between the FAO and the Government of Liberia under FAO's emergency intervention for the control of the disease.

Speaking Friday at the signing ceremony in Monrovia, FAO-Liberia Representative Marc Abdala said the project is intended to combat PPR disease in animals.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

bushchicken.com - by Zeze Ballah - August 20, 2015

VOINJAMA, Lofa – An investigation conducted by The Bush Chicken has established that scores of livestock in Lofa died from Peste des Petit Ruminants, or Ovine Rinderpest. . . .

. . . Over 1,000 farmers in Zorzor and Kolahun districts, including the towns Tenebu and Samodu, lost livestock to Peste des Petit Ruminants. . . .

. . . When contacted for comments, Lofa’s Agriculture Coordinator Theophilus Baah confirmed The Bush Chicken investigation and said the ministry has not been providing vaccines to animals prior to the recent outbreak.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

fao.org

Introduction

The FAO has always been concerned with agricultural development and food security. Recent disease epidemics, in both developing and industrialised countries, have once again focussed attention on livestock disease and their potential to harm development. In the context of developing countries, disease epidemics do four things:

They reduce herds and flocks dramatically, which, in the case of pastoral peoples, is a major blow to food security and the ability to survive;

They cause trading partners to - quite understandably - put trade barriers in place in order to protect their own countries from infection. Where livestock or meat exporting countries are affected by epidemics, their "pariah" status can cost millions of dollars in terms of foreign exchange losses, and drive farmers and the local meat industry to the wall.

They are a deterrent to sustained livestock production.

They add significantly to the cost of livestock production through the necessity for the application of costly disease control measures.

(CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW - FAO - Manual on Livestock Disease Surveillance and Information Systems)