Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (Nepal)

Zoonotic influenza poses a significant public health concern to agricultural industries, food security, wildlife conservation, and human health. Nations situated along migratory bird flyways and characterised by dense populations of livestock and humans, and low biosecurity of production animal value chains are particularly vulnerable to zoonotic influenza outbreaks. While spatial risk assessments have been used to map vulnerable areas, their applicability across multiple sectors has been so far limited. Here, we introduce the development and application of a Zoonotic Influenza Distribution and Ranking (ZIDAR) framework to identify areas highly suitable for zoonotic influenza transmission across multiple exposure interfaces and to measure the importance of associated risk factors. The development of ZIDAR involves a seven-step approach distributed across an initial expert consultation stage followed by a technical modelling stage. The expert consultation stage aims to define interfaces of exposure across human, livestock and wildlife, identification of associated risk factors for each of the identified interfaces and a prioritisation activity to define weights for the interfaces and associated risk factors. This is then followed by a technical phase involving model building, model structure validation, data gathering and assessment of model performance. The model development and performance assessment steps of the technical stage includes a model calibration step to maximise model fitness with regards to wildlife and animal interfaces by finding pareto-efficient sets of weights for risk factors. We applied the ZIDAR framework in Nepal and the resulting model structure enabled the identification of hotspot areas where the risk of transmission is more significant across multiple interfaces simultaneously. The ZIDAR Nepal model's predictive accuracy, determined by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, demonstrated strong performance: 0.87 and 0.85 for the wildlife and animal components, respectively. The ZIDAR framework presented here provides valuable insights to enable the formulation of comprehensive One Health surveillance programs and inform targeted and effective interventions to bolster pandemic preparedness strategies.

Anemia poses significant health risks, especially affecting women and children, leading to increased morbidity, mortality, and adverse birth outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated economic challenges and food insecurity, and weakened immune systems affecting vulnerable populations like pregnant, and lactating women, and children. This study aimed to assess factors associated with anemia among pregnant and lactating women (PLW) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the targeted municipalities of five provinces of Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted from August, 2022−April 2023 among 844 PLW (mean age 26.8 ± 4.96 years) from five provinces of Nepal selected through cluster sampling. A semi-structured electronic questionnaire, a paper-based 24-hour dietary recall, and hemoglobin concentration in the blood were recorded. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regressions were used to estimate the crude odds ratios (cOR), and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95

Background/Objectives: The presence of antibiotic residues (ARs) in animal products such as milk can be an important driver of antimicrobial resistance in commensal and pathogenic bacteria. Previous studies on ARs in Nepal have demonstrated the presence of ARs in milk samples but without further characterization of the samples for risk factor analysis. This study aimed to quantify the prevalence and risk factors for the presence of ARs in 140 peri-urban dairy farms in Kathmandu, Nepal, included in a cross-sectional survey in 2019 to estimate farm-level AR prevalence. Results: Our results reveal the presence of ARs of sulfamethazine (61%), sulfamethoxazole (53%), ciprofloxacin (46%), and enrofloxacin (42%). Furthermore, of those samples positive for sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin, 81%, 42%, and 42%, respectively, exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL). While samples taken from farms where staff administered antibiotics were less likely to have single drug residues and multidrug residues (two, three, and four drugs), farms with more workers were more likely to have single residues. Moreover, samples from farms with a higher number of calves and milking cows were more likely to contain single and multiple residues exceeding the MRL, while milk from farms with higher numbers of dry cows and farmers reported by a visiting chemist were less likely to have multidrug residues exceeding the MRL. Methods: High-performance liquid chromatography was conducted on bulk milk samples from farms for an AR analysis, revealing positive results. Additionally, a structured questionnaire and direct farmer interviews were used to collect data on farm biosecurity and farming practices, animal health and hygiene, antibiotic usage (AMU), and attitudes and practices towards antibiotic stewardship. Conclusions: Ultimately, this study provides evidence on the role of modifiable ARs risk factors in the peri-urban milk industry of Kathmandu, which can serve as a foundation for developing improved antimicrobial stewardship guidelines and designing intervention measures to reduce the public health risk posed by ARs in milk sold in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Diseases affecting livestock can have significant impacts on the animal, humans and the economy. Participatory epidemiology and spatial analysis were conducted to assess livestock disease problems in Samburu County, northern Kenya. Key informants were selected purposively with the help of local leaders. Among the livestock, goats were identified to have the most economic importance. On the other hand Pestes des Petits Ruminants (PPR), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Camel Trypanosomiasis diseases were identified to have the highest impact on pastoral livelihood. Spatial analysis indicated that all the disease hotspots were closely related to the distribution of herds during different seasons of the year. Correlations between the mean annual rainfall and selected livestock diseases were significant for East Coast Fever (ECF) ( r = − 0.767, p = 0.001, N = 15), Cattle Helminthiasis ( r = 0.639, p = 0.010, N = 15), Cattle Anaplasmosis ( r = 0.631, p = 0.012, N = 15) and Camel Pox ( r = − 0.646, p = 0.044, N = 10). There was a strong relationship between seasonality and livestock disease epidemiology. Disease control efforts should be focused towards the hotspots in the wet season and dry season grazing areas.

Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is one of the most important zoonotic diseases in the world. The study aimed to estimate the seroprevalence and associated risk factors of T. gondii infections among sheep and pregnant women in Meket District, North-East Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2021 to June 2021. A simple random sampling strategy and a systematic random sampling strategy were used to select individual animal owners and pregnant women, respectively. A total of 530 blood samples (322 from sheep's jugular vein and 208 from the cephalic vein of pregnant women) were collected and examined using the latex agglutination test kit (LAT). A univariate and multivariate logistic regression test was applied to show the association between the dependent and independent variables, considering p<0.05 with a 95% confidence interval. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii among individual sheep, flock levels, and pregnant women was found to be 31.4%, 72.5%, and 32.2%, respectively. Age, sex, water source, and cat ownership and cleaning of cat litter were significantly associated (p<0.05) with T. gondii infection in sheep and pregnant women, respectively. In conclusion, serological findings and the questionnaire survey indicated that T. gondii infection is highly prevalent in sheep and pregnant women in the study area, and hence appropriate control measures, including regular surveillance, health education, good hygiene, and management of cats, should be implemented to mitigate the problem