Animals: Innovation in Animal Health
Advancing Sustainable Livestock Production in Africa
In line with our purpose to nurture the world and humankind by advancing care for animals, we focus on supporting customers in underserved rural communities working to predict, prevent, detect and treat illness in animals and to address unmet medical needs. Through this, we also support a shift from disease treatment to prevention, thus reducing use of antimicrobials in livestock.
Since 2017, our African Livestock Productivity and Health Advancement (A.L.P.H.A.) initiative, co-funded with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, helps to improve livestock health and positively impact farmers’ livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative began in 2017 in Uganda, Nigeria, and Ethiopia and later expanded into Tanzania.
In March 2023, Zoetis announced the launch of A.L.P.H.A. Plus, a newly established agreement between Zoetis and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will aim at further developing and integrating innovative solutions to advance veterinary care and diagnostic services that will ultimately improve livestock health, productivity and food security in one of the most rapidly developing regions in the world. The grant will help Zoetis to expand its original African Livestock Productivity and Health Advancement (A.L.P.H.A.) initiative in new markets, where population growth and the need for sustainable protein source are the greatest – such as Kenya, Ivory Coast and other markets from East, West and Central Sub-Saharan Africa.
The A.L.P.H.A. Plus initiative will span from December 2022 to November 2027 with a 15.3M$ grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation focusing on the most impactful livestock species in the region: poultry, dairy and beef cattle, and aquaculture.
The A.L.P.H.A. Plus initiative will make progress against three major areas:
Increased access to an expanded portfolio of quality veterinary medicines, vaccines and services
Access to high-quality veterinary products is essential for safeguarding nutrition and ensuring an inclusive economy. Zoetis will increase the availability of innovative products, veterinary medicines, vaccines and services to make a wider range of important quality animal health solutions available to veterinary professionals and small-scale producers.
Expand sustainable diagnostic services with data-driven decision making
Diagnosing livestock diseases helps tackle key health issues in a responsible and sustainable manner. A.L.P.H.A Plus will build upon learnings and available infrastructure from the original A.L.P.H.A. initiative, to expand the diagnostics services offering and utilize data from an integrated farming information ecosystem to help recommend appropriate disease prevention and treatment measures to help empower local farming communities.
Scaling of the last mile service delivery network
A key learning from previous grant activities is that agro/drug shop outlets are an important intervention point for training and education, as it is the main point of contact where farmers buy veterinary products for their animals. It is also essential that the cold-chain is maintained until products reach the farmer to ensure improved animal health outcomes and sustainability. A.L.P.H.A. Plus shall therefore include development of certified training courses and content for farmers and shop owners, and also invest in cold-chain improvement to help prevent temperature fluctuations damaging products due to frequent power supply issues. In addition, the supply of quality products to the “last mile” shall be strengthened through expansion of community vaccination schemes with fully trained vaccinators.
Through our A.L.P.H.A. and A.L.P.H.A. Plus initiatives with focus in Africa, by 2025 we will1:
ASPIRATION
Grow access to vet care in emerging markets
TARGET
Train 100,000 farmers, veterinary professionals and lab technicians
2022 PROGRESS
Trained over 30,000 farmers, veterinarians, para-veterinarians, distributors and lab personnel during 1,200+ training days. Training courses have been tailored to address training gaps identified by regional surveys to ensure maximum relevance to stakeholders with the aim of increasing participation.
TARGET
Increase women trainees to 50% of trainees
2022 PROGRESS
30% of in-person trainees are women. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shift toward online training delivery which resulted in a decrease in women participants due to lower digital readiness and connectivity availability. In 2022 we saw a positive trend compared to 2021 and expect it to improve as we move back to more in-person training.
TARGET
Treat 10 million cows with positive implications on smallholder livelihoods, food security and the environment
2022 PROGRESS
Treated 9.7 million cows.2
TARGET
Treat 200 million chickens with positive implications on smallholder livelihoods, food security and the environment
2022 PROGRESS
Treated 196 million chickens.3
Learn more about A.L.P.H.A Plus here.
For more information about A.L.P.H.A. original initiative, click here.
Improving Livestock Health and Livelihoods in Africa
In 2021, we started transitioning our A.L.P.H.A. initiative activities throughout the broader Sub-Saharan Africa region, where Zoetis is committed to sustain and grow its presence by focusing on distribution improvement and geographical coverage, technical support, diagnostic support, digital capabilities, training and education and support of private-public partnerships. To learn more about A.L.P.H.A.’s most recent progress, click the button below.
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1 Progress is year to date and is based on a 2019 baseline.
2 Assumptions used that every cow received at least 2 doses (treatment and prevention)
3 In 2021, we revised our assumptions from every bird receiving at least 3 doses to 5 doses (treatment and prevention) due to the higher rate of adoption of broader vaccinations. We recalculated 2020 data to reflect this change and it is reflected in the reported number. The newer calculation assumption has been applied to 2022 data.