RP animal health communication

(Partially lifted from my other blog)

A recent ebola outbreak among hogs was recently reported in the Philippines. An ebola virus was confirmed in a subsequent laboratory test in the US and no further outbreaks were reported. Other quarantined animals were confirmed negative of the virus.

‘Fortunately,’ the ebola outbreak among hogs in the Philippines was caused by the low pathogenic ebola reston strain, which does not affect humans. When it was first detected in the US in 1989, it fatally affected monkeys. The suspected monkeys that introduced the virus came from the Philippines. Investigations led to discovery of other outbreaks in the Philippines, which reported it between 1989 and 1990.

The US had a subsequent outbreak in 1996 and it was again traced to monkeys imported from the Philippines. These outbreaks prompted studies to investigate the zoonotic nature of the strain, which was later disproved.

In the current ebola outbreak, Philippine animal health authorities took a while to release the news although it is certain that investigations were continuing after the outbreak was confirmed and strict biosecurity measures in the farms and province reportedly affected were properly imposed.

The Philippine government recently confirmed the ebola outbreak among hogs almost a little more than a month after it was detected. It immediately stopped pig meat exports “as a precautionary measure.” Philippine authorities assured the public that the ebola virus in pigs was not fatal to humans. The Philippine animal and public health authorities again urged the public to buy only government certified meat. Further tests in other farms showed negative results confirming that the ebola outbreak among hogs was an isolated incident.

Philippine Agriculture officials assured affected farmers of aid and claimed that it will seek international assistance to finally investigate the reservoir of the virus in the country. It has invited international animal health experts and veterinarians to investigate. A Bloomberg report said that international health experts are positive about the recent hog ebola outbreaks will finally lead scientists “to ‘elusive reservoir’ of virus.”

The Philippine’s Department of Agriculture (DA) where the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) is a line agency has a communications unit, the Agriculture and Fisheries and Information Services (AFIS). The AFIS serves a number of bureaus and agencies under the Department (Ministry to other countries), some of which do not have a communications unit of its own. The AFIS assists the bureaus and agencies in drafting of communication strategies or message development on crops, fisheries, livestock among others.

The AFIS manpower and resources, however, is very limited. Priority is given to crops, which makes half of the country’s agriculture sector while livestock is around 12%. Having previously worked for BAI, I noticed that AFIS seems to have a large media relations role for the whole department and also has a big role as such for each bureau, agency or regional field unit of the DA.

Most Filipino animal health authorities would likely preempt public opinion if they hear terms which they feel would result to feeding images such as scenes from the movie Outbreak. The ebola virus causes haemmorhagic ebola fever, which is fatal for humans. This is one crisis that any politicians or health (both public and animal) authorities would not like to have.

It pays to have laid out plans in cases of risk and crisis communication. However, in my work as a communications officer for a foreign assisted project in BAI, it is very frustrating to realise that there is no such plan in place. Risk and crisis communication, let alone animal health comunication, is a reactive activity for the Department (of Agriculture). This attitude towards risk and crisis communication and, by and large, animal health communication, puts a dent to the whole reputation of the Department.

Public trust when betrayed in any crisis will jeopardize any activity that are aimed at minimizing the impact of a potentially damaging crisis such as animal disease outbreaks. The Department has certainly opened up itself to criticisms that it is capable of covering up cases especially if it is ‘just an epizootic disease.’ No report, no crisis?

The Department has been a recipient of a number of technical assistance from foreign governments to non-government organizations. These assistance range from veterinary capacity, biosecurity, laboratory management, including communications, however, it seems that the communications part was not a priority that they still fall into the trap of tripping in an impending crisis.

The Department has had a number of reports regarding programs on the control of significant outbreaks (from FMD to suspected HPAI ) in the Philippines with, probably, lessons learned as a significant section in these reports. However, the current action of the Department to this crisis shows that these reports were merely submitted for formality’s sake. The training received by staff might have gone down the drain as the top level management has yet to act on the recommendations, especially animal health communication, that is institutionalize it in the national programs and follow it as they will follow biosecurity guidelines.

Contemplating to do a PhD?

The moment I decided to take an advanced postgraduate training, there were a number of issues that I needed to resolve before starting my formal training. Establishing my conceptual framework, methodology and trying to learn from previous PhD students.

I’m quite new to the British system of advanced postgraduate training where it seems to be unstructured and you are wholly independent. If you lose focus, you might as well say goodbye to the finish line of your journey towards a PhD degree. Two books that I found very useful especially for students used to structured graduate program such as the American system are as follows:

• Working for a Doctorate: A Guide for Humanities and Social Sciences, edited by Norma Graves and Ved Varma
• Readme First by Janice M. Morse and Lyn Richards

For people contemplating to jump into the PhD wagon, especially those in the humanities or social sciences, you should read and ‘meditate’ on Graves and Varma’s book. If you are looking at using qualitative approach, Morse and Richards’ book is a must.

There are also a lot of resource sites online. I have attended one of the road shows of ‘PhD in Progress’ and it is highly recommended for PhD students regardless of year they are into their PhDs.

• PhD in Progress
• All-But-Dissertation Survival Guide

Protection Motivation Theory

Block, L. G. and P. A. Keller (1998). “Beyond Protection Motivation: An Integrative Theory of Health Appeals.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 28(17): 1584-1608.

Summary
The authors combine Rogers’ Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model to suggest an Integrated Public Health Communication Theory. The PMT states that there are four variables affecting the motivation of a person and these are perceptions of vulnerability, severity, response efficacy and self-efficacy. The transtheoritical theory traces its roots from clinical psychology and has six decision making stages. In combining the two theories, they suggested that people tend to have different levels of readiness to change due to perceptions of vulnerability, severity, response efficacy and self-efficacy.

Implications to Current Research
There is a possibility that this Integrated Public Health Communication Theory could be tested with regard to its relevance to animal health. The methodological methods could be adopted in my study. Another possibility is expanding this study and making it longitudinal in nature. Results of the knowledge, attitudes and practices survey conducted in Southeast Asia could be used as a baseline and a follow-up survey could be done by next year, this is after the implementation of a quasi-experiment. The quasi-experiment could test this theory in the field.

Valuable Quotations

• “Rogers’ (1975, 1983) is one of the most popular of these theories [examining health-related behavioural change] because it explicitly incorporates the role of health-related messages in effecting behavioral change.” p. 1584
• “Perceptions about these four factors [severity of an event, probability of the event’s occurrence, belief in the efficacy of the recommendations provided in the message, and belief that one has the ability to perform the recommendations] arouse protection motivation (as indexed by behavioral intentions), which in turn provides the incentive to seek a healthier behavior (Rogers, 1975, 1983). p. 1584
• “… empirical studies of PMT fail to support Rogers’ (1975, 1983) premise that these components are equally important in determining behavioral intentions.” p. 1585

Applications
This has expanded the public health communication theory thereby making it more applicable in the field. Insights from this Integrated Public Health Communication Theory could be used in maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of public health communication campaigns.

Effective Communication

Alders, R. G. and B. Bagnol (2007). “Effective Communication: The Key to Efficient HPAI Prevention and Control.” World’s Poultry Science Journal 63.

Summary
This journal article reviewed the challenges involved in the development and implementation of effective communication for the campaign against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). It pointed out that most of the messages that were developed during the HPAI outbreaks focused on the zoonotic nature of HPAI taking note of the threat of a pandemic and virtually disregarding the technical advice that the outbreak be dealt at the source. It reviewed the lessons learned and recommended ways for improving efficiency and effectiveness of HPAI communication.

Alders and Bagnol emphasized the challenges in any communication campaign to assist disease control outbreaks. They explained that even one country could have differences in literacy, culture, language, perception on disease and disease control, priorities and communication channels. To ensure effective communication, they recommended that materials be clear, consistent, credible, practical and correct.

Implications to Current Research
This paper is a documentation of the authors’ experience and lessons learned in the field in the implementation of animal disease control program specifically an HPAI Campaign. This highlights the need for empirical evidence on the role of communication for animal disease control or health programs. It also emphasizes the need to validate scientifically how different communication strategies will fit each target audience (per country/region). The authors noted that there is a need for participatory approach in the development and delivery of messages. They also noted that messages should be correctly framed that it fits the social and cultural realities of the target audiences.

Other Notes
Robyn Alders works for the FAO Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD). ECTAD is the lead team that deals with HPAI. She’s based in Southeast Asia. Bridgette Bagnol is an anthropologist who worked with Robyn in Africa. She was instrumental in introducing Robyn to “effective communication” in animal health.

This paper was written based on field experience. There is a need for empirical evidence to validate this claim although in principle, project proponents and even donors agree on the important role that communication plays in development initiatives, in this case, HPAI Campaign.

Valuable Quotations

• “Education and communication materials dealing with disease prevention and control is especially challenging because of the wide range perceptions about the origin of the disease.” p. 140
• “Effective risk communication has proved a daunting task given the diverse situations in which the messages are required. Even within the same country, there can be significant socio-cultural diversity with respect to literacy; culture/traditions; languages; perceptions of disease and disease control; priorities; and, communication channels.” p. 140-141
• “In addition to risk communication, agencies such as the [Food and Agriculture Organization] FAO and [World Organization for Animal Health] OIE have responsibilities for the development of technical recommendations to support the implementation of technically sound and appropriate HPAI prevention and control activities by their national partners.” p. 141

Applications
This paper is useful as a simple guide as to what to watch out in implementing a communication campaign regardless for what field, i.e., public health, animal health, etc.

Animal Health Officer (Communications)

I regularly check vacancies on various organizations online especially FAO vacancies. I usually find posts for animal health officers specializing in various fields like economics, production, epidemiology among others but one thing that I have yet to see they recruit is an animal health officer specializing on communications. Well, I guess that time will come.

First half

The first few months have been a roller coaster ride for me. Work hasn’t seriously started due to personal stuff that I needed to address. The hard thing about coming here is the need to settle personal matters first. Well, as of this writing things are going smoothly as a few months back I was able to finalize our accommodation, the children’s schooling among other things. I’m now planning my first fieldwork, which will commence right after the 2008 AB-CRC Student and National Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand.

Introductory Seminar: Animal Health Communication

This seminar was delivered at the Asian Research Centre of Murdoch University today as an introductory seminar of my research on animal health communication.

Livestock play a significant role in the livelihood of smallholder farmers, which includes draught power for agricultural activities, nutrition sources for their family and cash income from the sale of livestock products such as milk, meat and eggs. However, the continuing outbreaks of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) such as Avian Influenza, Foot and Mouth Disease and Classical Swine Fever in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) have caused severe morbidity and mortality in livestock populations in the Subregion, particularly smallholder communities, with severe negative economic impact. Governments, non-government organizations and international organizations have provided various services, ranging from veterinary training to public awareness, to smallholder farmers and other sectors to help alleviate their TADs problems.

Communication has played a vital role in delivering services to various sectors. There is good evidence that animal health communication (AHC) campaigns, through various communication channels have helped enormously those isolated communities in remote regions deal with TADs problems.

The focus on improving AHC has been increasing since the outbreak of zoonotic diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in late 2002 and heightened with the emergence of AI in 2004. This further intensified with the need to inform and mobilize the public to address various issues related to the spread and control of TADs outbreaks effectively. The outbreaks have also highlighted the need for a holistic approach in implementing animal health or animal disease programs by integrating AHC. There is growing concern, however, that this could be improved by a more targeted approach.

This research aims to investigate the role and importance of AHC, and the cultural and social implications of integrating it in animal health and disease control programs. It will use both qualitative and quantitative approaches in building both a definition and a theory/model of AHC.

AB-CRC National Workshop

Melbourne, Australia–The Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases recently held its national workshop from 13 to 16 November 2007. A two-day commercialization workshop was held during the first two days while a board member meeting was held on 14 November. About 30 AB-CRC students from various universities in Australia attended the workshop to present progress of their research project through posters or talks between 14 and 15 November.

Media professionals also met with AB-CRC students and stakeholders to discuss ways of increasing media attention to important research projects. Prizes were also awarded to winners of the inaugural photography contest on biosecurity. Other prizes awarded during the national workshop include best paper presentation and best poster.

Off to a great start

The School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences held its Poster Day last 9 November. Total of 79 posters were exhibited with 14 prizes on the grabs. Around 250 people from Murdoch and other institutions attended the Poster Day. It was a tough job for judges as there were too many good posters on display. Alas, at the end of the day, my poster was chosen as the first recipient of the Geoff Griffiths Prize, one of two most prestigious prizes at Poster Day.

Geoff Griffiths is a recently retired BVS Medical Illustrator. He played a key role in assisting students with producing their posters and helped to build the Poster Day into a great annual event. Special acknowledgment to my supervisors, John, Anne, Kate and Subhash, who all played a key role in developing the poster.

Poster presentation

One of the first serious work.

This is the poster presentation that I developed with my supervisory panel. This will be presented at the BVS Poster Day on Friday, 9 November and the AB-CRC National Workshop in Melbourne.