Combating Zoonoses: A Three-Year Project Successfully Completed in Cambodia

Since late 2012, teams from Agronomes et vétérinaires sans frontières (AVSF) and Merial have been collaborating on an animal health and public health program aimed at developing animal production and reducing the impact of zoonoses in six villages in southeastern Cambodia. This hands-on project, carried out over three years to benefit residents of this rural region, focused on preventing zoonotic diseases and training livestock farmers in best practices. The results show significant improvements.   The two partners implemented this project to address shortcomings in health security, low rates of livestock vaccination and deworming, and inadequate feeding practices on farms in southeastern Cambodia, a particularly impoverished rural area. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in this Asian country, AVSF partnered with Merial, a world leader in animal health, to improve both the health and productivity of livestock and the health of villagers, thereby creating the conditions necessary for the region’s socioeconomic development. The fight against zoonoses was at the heart of their collaboration. Under the guidance of a district veterinarian and seven animal health workers recruited from among the villagers, 105 livestock farmers from six villages in Prey Veng Province benefited from this program. Vaccination and deworming campaigns for livestock targeted traditional chicken, pig, and cattle farms. In total, approximately 12,200 chickens, some 900 pigs, and more than 300 cattle were vaccinated and treated for parasites. Villagers were trained in livestock-raising techniques and educated on the implementation of preventive and biosecurity measures. To promote the sharing of these best practices, exchange visits were organized among the farmers. The comprehensive program improved the health of the animal populations and, at the same time, increased the incomes of 350 families by 30 to 50 percent. In chicken farms, morbidity fell by 31% and mortality by 19% . A 16% decrease in the morbidity rate was observed among pigs and a 14% decrease among cattle. On average, households increased their herds by 4 pigs and 176 chickens. Farmers were also trained in financial strategies vital to their livelihoods, such as collective marketing of their produce, microcredit, and savings. Finally, to ensure these positive results are sustained and to provide villagers with long-term access to the products needed for their livestock farming, a local veterinary pharmacy was even opened. Attracting about 40 customers per month, its customer traffic is steadily increasing. As part of the program’s public health component, a rabies vaccination campaign—rabies being a major national scourge—has immunized more than 2,000 dogs. In Asia, rabies is responsible for more than 30,000 deaths per year. In this part of the world, the WHO estimates that 2.5 billion people are at risk. In Cambodia, the rabies virus circulates widely. Deaths from the disease account for 1.3% of all fatal human rabies cases worldwide. Since its creation in 1995, the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia (IPC) has provided post-exposure rabies treatment to more than 175,000 people. To consolidate the results achieved by the project in the six villages of Prey Veng Province, AVSF and Merial extended their collaboration in 2016 for a fourth year.   http://www.avsf.org/fr/posts/2025/full/sante-animale-et-sante-publique-au-cambodge