Collaborating institutions
- The Royal Veterinary College (RVC)
- Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) College Of Veterinary Science
- Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences University (GAVDASU)
- International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Dates: 36 months
Value: $820,823
Principal Investigator: Javier Guitian
Project Summary:
As in other Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC’s), the dairy industry in Andhra Pradesh (AP) is intensifying and its output increasing to satisfy the growing demand for milk and dairy products. Milk and dairy products are an essential component of the diets of many AP residents. Furthermore, the State has high levels of rural poverty and the livelihoods of many families are linked to activities along the milk supply chain. Women play an important role at the production stages but do not have the same access to resources and opportunities (e.g. access to markets and milk commercialization) and are not well represented in the governance structures. The expansion of dairy production in AP has taken place without food safety challenges being fully addressed. Improving the safety of milk and dairy products in AP is now a public health priority, however, there are limited data on which to base food safety controls, guidelines and regulations. Furthermore, potential undesirable effects that enhancing milk hygiene controls may have on the participation of the rural poor in milk supply chains and on access of vulnerable populations to safe milk and dairy products are not well understood. In this investment, we tackle safety of milk and dairy products in AP by addressing three elements of the problem:
- lack of good quality data on presence of microbiological hazards in the dairy chains of AP
- limited adoption of good farming practices and milk hygiene practices
- the need for milk quality policies that are not only effective but also realistic, sustainable and equitable.
We have developed a work plan that combines microbiological surveys of milk and dairy products, probabilistic modelling of the likely impact of control strategies and strong stakeholder engagement including participatory model building to explore the broad implications of milk hygiene policies and identify gender based constraints. Our approach relies on the use of risk assessment frameworks, which are well established as tools to support food-safety policies worldwide, but yet to be widely adopted in LMICs. This risk modelling methodology will be combined with system dynamics (SD) modelling, a holistic approach for studying the behaviour of complex systems incorporating feedback mechanisms which could undermine the effectiveness of policies over time or result in unintended consequences. Stakeholder engagement will be a key activity along the whole project to facilitate translation of scientific outputs into improvements at farm level (improved farming practices), at intermediate level along the chains (improved milk handling practices) and at policy-level (improved risk-based regulation). Stakeholder engagement will be at all stages of the project, iterative, and completed by training activities to enhance local research capacity on technical aspects of risk modelling and on interpretation of model outputs and their use for policy formulation. To maximize potential uptake of research outputs beyond AP (within India and in other countries) a number of national and international organizations well positioned to facilitate dissemination and uptake of findings will be engaged in the project since its early stages.
Project resources:
Other useful information and links
The Royal Veterinary College:
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/
RVC’s VEEPH group:
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/research-centres-and-facilities/veterinary-epidemiology-economics-and-public-health
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) College Of Veterinary Science:
http://vetgvrm-mhrd.areteservices.org/
Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences University (GAVDASU):
http://www.gadvasu.in/
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI):
https://www.ilri.org/
Key people and contact email addresses:
Javier Guitian
RVC
Professor of Veterinary Public Health
Overall project coordination
Matteo Crotta
RVC
Post-Doctoral researcher
Probabilistic modelling
Hannah Holt
RVC
Resarch assistant
Field study design and data analysis
Jackie Cardwell
RVC
Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology
Qualitative methods
Ben Swift
RVC
Research Fellow
Microbiology / laboratory methods
Srinivas Tumati Rao
NTR-SVvR
Head of Department - Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology
Overall project coordination
Bindu Kiranmayi
NTR-SVvR
Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases
Microbiology / laboratory methods
Deepa Maharshi
SVvR
Nutritionist
Women and Nutrition
Venkateswarlu Vankayalapati
ANU
Assistant Professor Sociology
Qualitative methods
Jasbir Bedi
GADVASU
Associate Professor in Veterinary Public Health
Quality assurance and field training
Paviter Kaur
GADVASU
Assistant Professor in Veterinary Microbiology
Quality assurance and lab training
Jatinder Paul Singh Gill
GADVASU
Director of Research
QA and dissemination of results
Narinder Sharma
GADVASU
Controller of Examination
QA and dissemination of results
Karl Rich
ILRI
Principal Scientist - Policy, Impact, & Value Chains
System Dynamics
John McGiven
APHA
Brucellosis R&D project leader
Laboratory training/quality assurance