Develop sustainable vaccination against Newcastle disease (NCD) for poultry in villages through a PPP (Public-Private Partnership)!

French Development Agency (AFD) has mandated Phylum represented by Dr François GARY to perform a feasibility study for a project to scale up Newcastle vaccine production and community-based vaccination in Malawi. This project will be based on the experience of InterAide, a French NGO which has been developing vaccination against communicable diseases in Malawi for the past 10 years in some districts.

Phylum has involved Dr Livio HEATH, the head of the vaccination production unit at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Intsitute (OVI) in South Africa, to provide his expertise on vaccine production. The choice of OVI was made to facilitate the future transfer of know-how with the CVL (Central Veterinary Laboratory) of Malawi which produces the NCD I2 vaccine.

This project can be a concrete example of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The first priority PPP is the development of a joint program between the Malawi Veterinary Services and local partners (NGOs, community animal health workers, small farmers villages, private veterinary drug retailers...) to distribute and perform vaccination in villages in most part of the country. The second PPP can be established to strengthen the capacity of the CVL vaccination unit to meet the national demand of this vaccine.

A good initiative to develop a sustainable scheme of community-based vaccination.