IMPROVING LABORATORY DIAGNOSTIC CAPABILITY OF SOMALIA PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VETERINARIANS

IMPLEMENTORS: Kenya Women Veterinary Association

VENUE: Regional Veterinary Investigation Laboratory, Garissa

17th February to 8th March, 2010

Livestock and livestock products continue to be the major source of livelihoods and food security for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in Southern and Central Somalia. Livestock provide food (milk and meat), a source of cash (live animals and animal products), and make the major contribution to meeting household needs and family social obligations (manure, draught power, hides, skins, and dowry disbursements, etc.). However, severe and prolonged dry seasons compounded by poor infrastructure; soaring food prices and insecurity have contributed to the households resorting to harmful coping strategies such as asset stripping exemplified by the sale of productive assets such as livestock.
The Somali pastoral context is characterized by conditions that facilitate the spread of Trans-boundary Animal Diseases (TADs). This is mainly as a result of insufficient application of disease control measures which is catalyzed by the prevailing insecurity situation in the country. Other challenges that keep on resurfacing from field reports include the lack of sufficiently qualified veterinary personnel, inadequate transport infra-structure, and lack of diagnostic capacity which is a reflection of the extensive collapse of Somali infrastructure, particularly that pertaining to human and livestock disease control.
FAO Somalia awarded a consultancy to KWVA to conduct training on improving the laboratory diagnostic capability of Somali public and private veterinarians.
The objectives of this training were;
• To develop a module for training of Somali public sector and private veterinarians on basic diagnostic laboratory techniques covering components of haematology, parasitology, bacteriology and serology.

• To improve the laboratory diagnostic skills of Somali public sector and private veterinarians from Gedo and lower Juba regions through training.




Despite the fact that Somalia has not been training the veterinary professionals from the time of the civil war, the personnel were receptive to continuous veterinary education. The trainees were fully participatory and cooperative for the whole training period. They were eager to learn more about diagnostic techniques. The importance of good laboratory practice was emphasized both in theory and in practice throughout the training.
The training marks the beginning towards improving the veterinary diagnostic capacity of public and private personnel in Somalia; a region that depends solely on the livestock sector both for food security, economic growth and sustainability due to the adverse climatic conditions.
The participants were equipped with skills on basic veterinary laboratory techniques in the following areas;
• Parasitology (faecal and blood parasites)
• Bacteriology (Preparation of basic media, inoculation and preliminary identification of bacteria)
• Serology (Agglutination techniques, precipitation techniques, CFT and ELISA)

KWVA has once again proven her prowess in successfully implementing consultancies both within and outside our country.