Updates from Sabana Grande Part 1: Laura Budd, Karen Sorenson, Hannah MacDonald, Gaby Maier

Discussing the cows at one household we interviewed.

Surveys:

Laura Budd

One of our major project goals this year was to conduct a more extensive assessment of cattle and poultry health within Sabana Grande and reach more of the households within the community. We expanded upon the livestock survey conducted by last year’s students. This year we constructed a longer questionnaire that would give us a good picture of livestock numbers and use, husbandry, major animal health concerns, as well current use of any medications within the community. Much of our first week in Sabana Grande was spent walking house to house to set up appointments for and conducting our survey. Luckily, most families in the community were very welcoming and willing to spend some time answering our questions. This also gave us an opportunity to advertise our workshops we’d planned for the next week. Over the course of our three weeks in Sabana Grande we were able to survey many households throughout the community. Now that we have returned, we will begin to analyze our survey results. This will allow us to understand the state of animal health within Sabana Grande and in what direction our project should go to meet the community’s animal health needs.

Osman, our translator, was vitally important to our survey work, but also a wonderful educator on Nicaraguan culture and the local use and care of animals. He was able to explain to us what some of the locally available medicines for animals are and how people generally use them. He also enlightened us on the dynamics of land use and ownership within the community. Many who own large plots of pasture and cropland within Sabana Grande don’t actually live in the community, while many residents of Sabana Grande rent pasture land for their animals. 

Leon Meeting:

Karen Sorenson

 

Faculty and students from the University of León and University of California, Davis schools of human medicine and veterinary medicine.

In the colonial city of León several representatives from our veterinary team, including Dr. Rodrigo Gallardo, and our colleagues in the medical school, including Dr. Michael Wilkes, met with administrators from the medical and veterinary schools of the University of León. This was the first joint meeting between all four of these professional health schools. Each university presented its own efforts in the area of One Health, the interdisciplinary study of the relationships between human, animal and environmental health, and identified potential areas for international collaboration between the two universities. A particularly exciting outcome of this meeting was the shared enthusiasm for student learning opportunities. We hope that in upcoming years American, Nicaraguan, animal health and human health students can work together on complex topics like zoonotic diseases, nutrition and antimicrobial resistance. We are also looking forward to the improved sustainability and impact of our project by working closely with our Nicaraguan colleagues.