To reduce the risk of exposure of household poultry breeders to HPAI, ECTAD in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Genaral Organization fpr Veterinary Service (GOVs) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamantion (MOALR) supported the formulation and rollout of a community outreach program in 2015 as part of the Exposure Risk Reduction Program (ERP). The campaign was designed and applied for raising public awareness of a few key effective and protective slaughter procedures to reduce the risk of transmission of the H5 HPAI virus from birds to humans during the slaughtering process in households.
Overall, the ERP made it possible to reach out to various community groups targeting women and young people through sensitization events in 1901 agriculture facilities, 820 villages, 456 NGOs, 225 religious facilities, 1483 schools, 271 health facilities, 1555 municipality youth centers, and 150 private veterinary clinics.
Upon an extensive study to assess the performance of the campaign in the targeted villages, the campaign recorded a very high outreach where 93% of the interviewed household poultry breeders mentioned that they are aware of the ERP messages. The campaign further succeeded in changing the behavior of 43% of the household poultry breeders who received the awareness outreach regarding safe slaughtering.
ERP is now handed over to GOVS and became one of the essential messages used within the regular governmental communication programs.
“When I slaughter the bird, I put it in a closed container, and I cover it until the death struggle ends exactly as the local extension officer taught me three years ago. Since that day, I have been using this easy method in slaughtering my chicken and ducks to protect myself and my family”.
Aida, a female household poultry breeder, Maghagha, Menya, Egypt, 2019.