Halting a sheep and goat plague outbreak to protect livelihoods in Sierra Leone
When an outbreak of peste des petits ruminants (PPR)—also known as sheep and goat plague—threatened to wipe out people's livelihoods in Kamasasa village, Sierra Leone, quick action from trained Sierra Leone Red Cross Society volunteers and local authorities stopped the spread of disease and minimized its damage on the community.
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting small animals, such as sheep and goats. PPR can be fatal and outbreaks, if left undetected, can have devastating consequences for people's livelihoods, particularly in pastoral communities.
In Kamasasa, a village in north-west Sierra Leone where people are reliant on goat and sheep farming to make a living, an outbreak of PPR struck in September 2022 and threatened to wreak havoc in the community.
'It was all over the town," explains Pa Adikali Sesay, Chief of Kamasasa village."Everywhere you would go, people would say that their goats were sick. Some people would be crying because they were losing hope. If there was an emergency and they or their children got sick or if they need to pay school fees for their children, how would they pay for those things if all the animals died?'
Having never experienced a PPR outbreak before, people were unsure what to do. And misinformation was spreading alongside the disease. Some farmers even fled the village, believing that their animals were under some form of mystical attack.
But thankfully, local Sierra Leone Red Cross Society volunteers were on hand to support the community. Trained in epidemic control and community-based surveillance through the Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3), they immediately recognized the disease as PPR, rapidly reported the outbreak to local animal health authorities, and mounted an effective response to halt its spread.
'Our volunteers started mobilizing the community, sensitizing them, telling them not to eat these animals," says Osman Justin Conteh, CP3 Manager with the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society."We separated the sick from those that are not sick so that then the disease will not continue to spread. Then specimens were collected and sent to the lab. We supported the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to treat these animals, vaccinating more than 10,000 goats and sheep against PPR."
This quick, coordinated action made sure that PPR stopped spreading in the community and that sick animals were able to recover, with volunteers earning thanks and recognition from community members.
Sorie Daba Sesay, a farmer from Kamasasa village, says: ' The Red Cross arrived and told us to look for animals that were sick or had died. They helped get medicine to the sick goats so they would get better and not get sick again. We say to the Red Cross, thank you!'
And Kamasasa village chief, Pa Adikali, adds: 'The Red Cross did an incredible job. Without their intervention, we could have lost all our animals. The Red Cross arrived right when we needed their help.'
This PPR outbreak response is just one example of many disease outbreaks detected, reported and responded to through the CP3 programme in Kambia. Since the programme began in 2018, Sierra Leone Red Cross Society teams have improved their capacity to prepare for and respond to epidemics and developed close partnerships with human, animal and environmental health authorities to keep communities healthy and safe.
'The coming of CP3 and the Red Cross has helped us greatly in trying to mitigate the death toll of goats and sheep," says Ibrahim Harri Sesay, District Livestock Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Kambia. "They have trained over 250 volunteers across the districts here. CP3 volunteers are all over in the communities. They are with them, they know their problems. If there are any problems with disease, be it animal or human, they report to us directly and we react appropriately.'
The activities featured in this article were delivered as part of the multi-country Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3) which ran from 2018-2025.
Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CP3 supported communities, Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and other partners to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to disease threats.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
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