Abstract

Livestock interventions can improve nutrition, health, and economic well-being of communities. The objectives of this review were to identify and characterize livestock interventions in developing countries and to assess their effectiveness in achieving development outcomes. A scoping review, guided by a search strategy, was conducted. Papers needed to be written in English, published in peer-reviewed journals, and describe interventions in animal health and production. Out of 2739 publications systematically screened at the title, abstract, and full publication levels, 70 met our inclusion criteria and were considered in the study. Eight relatively high-quality papers were identified and added, resulting in 78 reviewed publications. Only 15 studies used randomized controlled trial designs making it possible to confidently link interventions with the resulting outcomes. Eight studies had human nutrition or health as outcomes, 11 focused on disease control, and four were on livestock production. Eight interventions were considered successful, but only four were scalable. We found good evidence that livestock-transfer programs, leveraging livestock products for nutrition, and helping farmers manage priority diseases, can improve human well-being. Our report highlights challenges in garnering evidence for livestock interventions in developing countries and provides suggestions on how to improve the quantity and quality of future evaluations.

Keywords

Animal health; animal-source food; food security; livestock production; nutrition security; smallholder farming

Published in

Animal Health Research Reviews
2020, Volume: 21, number: 2, article number: S1466252320000146
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

SLU Authors

• Lindahl, Johanna

  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
  • Uppsala University

Sustainable Development Goals

End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Reduce inequality within and among countries


UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Clinical Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1466252320000146

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/111722