Newcastle Disease Control in Singida, Tanzania. A Baseline Study.

Abstract

The main limiting factor to rural poultry production in the Singida district of Tanzania is Newcastle disease (ND). The KYEEMA foundation is implementing a one year project to improve the quality of life of local villagers in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia by improving the availability of chicken through sustainable vaccination against ND. This data confirms that the vaccination of chicken against ND has a positive effect on the numbers of chickens owned by villagers. However due to the unstructured and inconsistent application of these vaccinations this positive effect has not lead to a significant difference in chicken numbers. Another factor that has exacerbated the problem of unstructured an inconsistent vaccination is the lack of knowledge about ND vaccination among the villagers. These same problems can also be seen in the Thyolo district of Malawi despite the extreme differences in population density, geography and environment between the two districts. In both districts when a structured and consistent ND vaccination program is put into place an increase in chicken numbers will be expected.