This document provides context and outlines the objectives of Kristina Roesel's PhD thesis on assessing the parasitic burden in the smallholder pig value chain in Uganda. The thesis aims to 1) understand if parasites are perceived as a production constraint by farmers, 2) estimate parasitic burden in pigs at farm, slaughter, and retail levels, 3) identify risk factors for parasitic infections, and 4) assess risks to public health from pork consumption. Preliminary results from farm surveys found worms and mange to be top health issues. The thesis is funded by the Safe Food, Fair Food project and aims to improve pig value chains and reduce health risks from pork-borne parasites in Uganda.

1. More pork and less parasites: a farm to fork
approach for assessment and management of
pork meat associated diseases in Uganda
Kristina Roesel, Peter-Henning Clausen, Reinhard Fries,
Maximilian Baumann, Karsten Noeckler and Delia Grace
Parasitologisches Kolloquium, Freie Universität Berlin
18th October 2013 in Berlin, Germany

2. Outline:
• Context of PhD thesis
• PhD thesis:
objectives
activities
preliminary results
outlook
• Acknowledgements

3. Context
Joint appointment
coordinator ILRI-led project
“Safe Food, Fair Food”
PhD student
FUB (DRS)
• 2012-2015
• BMZ/GIZ funded 1.2m €
• 4.5 countries
• 9 partner institutions
• Approx. 20 partners
• 11 postgraduate students
• 2012-2015
• Peter-Henning Clausen (FUB)
• Reinhard Fries (FUB)
• Delia Grace (ILRI)
• Karsten Noeckler (BfR)
• Max Baumann (FUB)

4. Context
CGIAR global partnership for
a food secure future
• Poverty alleviation through
agricultural research
• 15 research centers
• Since 2012 16 multi-center
research programs: Solutiondriven R4D to achieve impact
• ILRI is leading 2 major programs

5. Research program on livestock & fish:
more meat, milk and fish for and by the poor
R4D integrated to transform selected value chains
In targeted commodities and countries.
Inputs & Services
Production
Processing
Marketing
Consumers
Value chain development team + research partners
To sustainably increase the productivity of
small-scale livestock and fish systems to increase
the availability and affordability of animal-source
foods for poor consumers.

6. 8 Target Value Chains
SHEEP & GOATS
AQUACULTURE
PIGS
DAIRY

7. Research program on nutrition & health
• Program led by IFPRI
• 4 components; ILRI is
leading “prevention and
control of agricultureassociated diseases”
–
–
–
–
Food borne diseases
Emerging infectious diseases
Neglected zoonoses
Ecohealth/ OneHealth
http://aghealth.wordpress.com/

8. Safe Food, Fair Food
risk-based approaches to improving food safety and
market access in informal markets in sub Saharan
Africa
Funded by BMZ/GIZ
(German Federal Minstry for Economic Cooperation and Development/
International Agency for International Cooperation)

9. Food safety in sub-Saharan Africa
 World wide per year >2 billion
cases of diarrhea
and 1.5 million deaths of children
under 5
 80% of child deaths due to
diarrhea in South Asia and Africa
1,800,000
1,600,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
HI
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FB
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 In sub-Saharan Africa >80% of
animal source foods sold through
informal markets
Cases per year
 Animal source foods are single
most important source of food
borne disease (FBD)
1,400,000

10. informal markets:
“absence of structured safety inspection”
10

11. Problems at policy level
 Current food safety management seems to be neither
effective nor efficient
 Tendency to adopt international food quality standards and
hazard-based regulations without considering local contexts
 Food safety communication trivializing
11

12. Kampala news June 2012
• Trivializing
• Scaring
• Defaming

13. But how to deal with informal markets?
 Ban or promote?
 Zero-risk/ hazard-based policy?
„if in doubt, keep it out“
 Is there an acceptable level of risk?
 How can participation help improving food
safety?
13

14. Risk analysis
or Risk-Based Decision Making
in informal marketing systems
 Based on evidence not perceptions
 Clear distinction between risk and hazard!
 Hazard = anything that causes harm
 Risk = probability + consequences
 Risk analysis = structured approach for evaluating
and dealing with risks

15. Codex Alimentarius Commission framework
for food safety risk assessment

16. Safe Food, Fair Food: 3 main components
 Assessment of food safety in selected value
chains: priority setting
 Action research on priority food safety issues
in these chains: pilot best-bet interventions
 Enabling environments: engagement with
Regional Economic Communities (REC) and
Capacity building

17. Partners
Centre Suisse des
Recherches
Scientifiques en Côte
d’Ivoire
Senegal
Addis Ababa University
Ethiopia
Nairobi University
Kenya
Sokoine University of
Agriculture
Tanzania
Makerere University
Uganda
International partners: Freie Universität Berlin & BfR

18. PhD thesis
Assessment of the parasitic burden
in the smallholder pig value chain
and implications for public health in
Uganda

19. Context:
Pigs and pork in Uganda
• Highest per capita consumption
in SSA (3.4 kg)
• Explosion in pig numbers over
the past 30 years (0.19 to
2.3/3.2 million pigs)
• Mostly in hands of small
holders
• “piggy bank”
• 70% consumed in urban areas
• “pork joint” phenomenon

20. Integration:
pig value chain assessment
Enabling environment
Live pig traders
Systematic literature review
Situational analyses
•
Qualitative assessment 1,400 pig farmers
•
Pig farm
•
•
Input suppliers
Questionnaire surveys with value chain actors
•
Farm prevalence survey 1,200 pigs
ASF, Taenia solium, Brucella suis, Toxoplasma gondii,
Trichinella spp., Sarcoptes spp., GIT helminths,
Trypanosoma spp., Ebola virus
Slaughter
•
Mapping of pork outlets in Kampala
Transport
•
Qualitative assessment with 100 pork
consumers and 200 mothers of children <5yrs
Retail
•
Descriptive survey abattoir and biological
sampling
Consumer
Salmonella spp., Brucella suis

21. Hypothesis
In Uganda, the intensification level affects the parasitic
burden of pigs and hence the output and profitability
of pig farming as well as risk to human health
associated with pork borne parasites.

22. Goal
Contribute to improving selected smallholder
pig value chains in Uganda by increasing the
knowledge on prevalent parasitic diseases with
particular emphasis on the zoonotic ones.

23. Objective 1:
To understand whether parasites are perceived as a production
constraint by farmers
Approach: Participatory appraisal on animal health constraints
for pig farmers
• November 2012-February 2013: 24 participatory appraisals
conducted with pig farmers (73 men + 135 women)
• perceived as top 3 diseases in all villages by farmers:
1. swine fever
2. worms
3. mange

24. Objective 2:
To estimate the parasitic burden in pigs and pork at farm,
slaughter and retail outlet level in 3 value chain types in Uganda
Approach:
• estimate the parasitic burden in pigs at farm level using
conventional parasitological and serological techniques
(May-October 2013)
• estimate parasitic infections in pigs and pork at slaughter and
retail outlet level using forward tracing and meat inspection
(December 2013)

25. May-July 2013:
2-stage random sampling
at farm level
stool and serum collected
from approximately 1,200
pigs in 30 villages

26. “real time diagnostics” in
the field lab:
combined sedimentation
and flotation
(gastrointestinal helminths)
thin blood smears from
jugular EDTA blood
(haemoparasites)

27. Convenient sample ectoparasites
Haematopinus suis
Amblyomma variegatum

28. • September-October 2013: Serological analyses at FLI
–
–
–
–
FLI Inhouse ELISA Toxoplasma gondii (toxo p30) – 2 versions
Commercial ELISA Priocheck Toxo Ab porcine
Commercial ELISA Priocheck Trichinella Ab
FUB Inhouse ELISA Sarcoptes suis

29. Objectives 3+4:
To identify risk factors contributing to parasitic infections in pigs
and pork and 4. To identify current practices that increase or
reduce risks to public health associated with pork consumption
Approach:
• participatory appraisal on husbandry and management
practices at farm level; slaughter level; pork preparation and
consumption patterns at ready-to-eat market outlets
– 24 participatory appraisals conducted with pig farmers (including slaughter
practices)
– Descriptive study at Wambizzi slaughter house in Kampala
– 10 participatory appraisals conducted with pork consumers (pig farmers)
• Literature review

30. • Oral presentation
slaughterhouse study at
AITVM 2013 in
Johannesburg, RSA
(August 2013)
• Poster presentation at
Ecohealth conference in
Abidjan, CI
(October 2013)
Award for best poster!

31. 5. To assess the risk to public health through the
consumption of pork infested with parasites (on-going)
6. To develop and test one intervention to reduce the
parasitic burden in pigs (February – August 2014)

32. Acknowledgements:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Peter-Henning Clausen, Reinhard Fries, Max Baumann, Karsten
Noeckler, Delia Grace
Danilo Pezo, Emily Ouma, Michel Dione, Natalie Carter, Paul Basaija,
Rachel Miwanda, Tom Randolph
Joseph Kungu, Joseph Erume, Angella Musewa, Joyce Akol, Katie
Holmes, Dickson Ndoboli, Rodric Alinaitwe, Steven Kakooza, Maria
Tumwebaze
Peggy Hoffmann-Koehler, Katharina Seidl, Ard Nijhof, Antje
Hoppenheit, Juergen Kruecken
Gereon Schares, Andrea Baerwald
Wambizzi Coorporative Society Ltd: Simon Lubega, Paul Sserubiri,
Justine Nabukeera, Thomas Kasule, Fredrick Kibuuka, Richard
Sekasanvu and Margaret, Jane Lwanira, David Walabyeki and the
abattoir workers.
the pig farmers in Uganda
Hubertus Schnorr
This work is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development, Germany through the Safe Food, Fair Food project.

33. THANK YOU!
Kristina Roesel
Project coordinator “Safe Food, Fair Food”
ILRI-Kampala
k.roesel@cgiar.org
https://safefoodfairfood.wordpress.com/
Better lives through livestock
www.ilri.org
The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.