Detour: 3 weeks in Haiti

Ebola continues to simmer in West Africa, with no signs of decreasing.  Two months ago, I was alerted to an opportunity to volunteer in Haiti with the Farmer-to-Farmer program of USAID.   I felt it was an great opportunity to continue the international development work I found so enjoyable, even if it wasn’t in Guinea.

December 15, 2014

I have been in Haiti for over two weeks.   It is a diverse country with bright agricultural prospects.  Sugarcane, coffee, rice, mangoes and bananas are just few of the crops grown here.  Goats, sheep, cows, rabbits, chickens and pigs are also raised, usually by small-scale Haitian farmers.  Like in Guinea, West Africa, where I recently spent 5 months as a Peace Corps volunteer, most livestock in Haiti are free range.   This includes the goats.  You would think in the lush tropical landscape that is Haiti, the goats here would be fat and happy.  On the contrary, many of them are thin and severely under conditioned.  In addition, some are dying, quite suddenly, with little or no warning. 

My reason for being here is to find out why and to implement practices designed to minimize the frequency at which it happens in the future.  I emphasize, “minimize” for a reason.  Disease, and most certainly death, is never eliminated.  The best we can do is to minimize its occurrence and limit its damage when it does occur.   If you are someone who adheres to the theory of perfection, you need to have your head examined.  Life is not a game of perfect.  Not even close.  And it never can be, nor will it ever be.

Goats are everywhere in Haiti.  Goats are a vital source for protein, and as such, they fetch a good price at the market.  They are also relatively hardy and can survive, and even thrive, in conditions that would be too stressful for other animals.  Their size in Haiti, however, does not indicate this, as most are smaller than what you would expect for a meat goat.  This is probably due to not only their disease burden and nutritional status, but also their genetics.  Improving the genetics of the goats in Haiti is a project for tomorrow.  Today I am concerned about the disease burden that is holding back the everyday Haitian from profiting more from their goats.   

A typical "leash pastured" goat in a small village

With the help of Benito Jasmine whose Haitian organization Makouti Agro Enterprise is working with the Farmer-to-Farmer program of USAID, we set about visiting numerous communities and doing basic physicals on their goats.   We have visited small Haitian villages where a household will have a few goats for meat production or a second source of income.  We have also visited more organized goat ranches, where the goal clearly is to generate substantial income from raising goats.  Though the health of the goats of each location varied, sometimes considerably, the most glaring clinical symptoms we kept finding was under-conditioning and anemia.  At times it was moderate, at other times it was severe.  In general, the better the management practices, the healthier the goats seemed to be.

A young goat with severe anemia.

“How are some of these goats even alive, “ I asked myself.

The most likely cause of such severe anemia is internal parasites.  Of all the parasites that can infect the goat, Haemonchus contortus, or the barber pole worm is the most likely cause due to its propensity to cause severe anemia absent any other signs.  For the inquisitively curious, this worm got its common name because its digestive tract spirals the length of its body.  When the worm has ingested the blood of the animal in which it resides, its body resembles the spiral you would see on a barbershop pole. 

A barber pole worm that can infect goats

In addition to the anemia that was so prevalent in the goats we examined, the hooves of many goats were in bad shape as well.  Specifically, their hooves were moderately to severely overgrown.  In cases where the goats are housed in concrete structures, hooves are naturally worn away.  However, when goats spend most of their life on pastures, especially pastures that are wet due to frequent rains, their hooves become exceptionally long.  This unfortunately creates an ideal environment for bacterial and fungal growth, as mud, manure and germs become trapped beneath the overgrown hoof.  This infection can lead to lameness, and if left untreated, the entire hoof can be lost.

Though I was fairly certain about my diagnosis, and felt confident administering anthelmintic drugs (effective against parasitic worms) to eliminate the parasite burden within these goats, a solution that was sustainable might not be so easy. 

First, I reminded myself that I was in a third world country.  The everyday Haitian does not have access to the knowledge and medicines that we do in the United States.  Furthermore, third world countries are notorious for the amount of corruption and bribery that takes place on a daily basis.  Thus, my position as an authority figure and an outsider, my skin color being an obvious clue, could put me at a disadvantage.  These people are used to receiving recommendations that are often filled with obvious conflicts of interest.  Why should these people listen to me?  Just because I am white?  When authority figures have disappointed you in the past, it difficult for you to trust them now, when you really might need their advice.  (Look no further than the Ebola epidemic that is ravaging West Africa.  Part of the challenge with fighting Ebola is getting the local populations to trust in their government and medical authorities.) 

My second challenge was establishing sound goat husbandry practices that would reduce the frequency in which the parasite load climbs to such an extreme level in the goat population in the future.   Otherwise, these goats will be right back in the same position a year or two from now.

A goat with severe mange, caused by mites

So I needed to establish credibility and trust.  Thankfully, Benito’s organization Makouti Agro Enterprise has already laid much of the groundwork for trust within the community, so most Haitians are already open to suggestions.  However, to reinforce certain principles of sound goat management, I wanted visual aids.  If I felt that parasites were the cause of their goats’ sub-optimal health, I wanted to show the Haitians what a parasite, or at least a parasite egg looked like.  Thus, my plan was to do fecal analysis on a goat with a suspected heavy parasite burden.  Most Haitians have never seen anything, let alone a parasite egg, under a microscope.  Using improvised materials, I was able to isolate parasite eggs and prepare microscope slides that contained the eggs.

I teach one of Makouti's staff what to look for on the slide

In addition to teaching fecal analysis techniques, I’ve also spent some time teaching Haitians, including agriculture students from a local university, the importance of proper hoof trimming.  Not only will this reduce the frequency of lameness and other foot problems, but the owners will form a much better connection to their animals.  This I hope will lead to improved awareness of factors that can affect the goat’s health and well-being.

Demonstrating how to properly trim goat hooves.

In order to stimulate long term and permanent change, a community must buy in to the need for change as well as embrace the proposed changes themselves.   The farmers with sick goats are definitely motivated to take action to prevent more goats from dying.  Administering anthelmintic drugs will certainly improve their herd’s immediate health, but this is only the first step in other changes that need to be made.  With the immediate success we expect from our de-worming campaign, we hope this will motivate the farmers to make changes in their overall management practices that are contributing to the parasite problems.

A couple of improvements come to mind.  First, the goats generally do not have access to clean drinking water.  They most commonly drink from puddles on the ground.   As you might guess, this is not the healthiest option for an animal.  The parasites that these goats are burdened with are shedding hundreds of eggs into their environment each day.  These parasite eggs continue their development and remain on the ground until they are eaten by an animal on a piece of plant material, ingested by an animal while it is drinking, or washed away to some place inaccessible to any animal.  Unfortunately, these eggs can remain viable for a very long time, especially in a warm and humid environment.  So convincing the communities to provide clean drinking water for their animals will significantly reduce the exposure to contaminated soil and water.

Healthy goat housing and grazing paddocks

Second, goats prefer tree leaves to grass for their nutrition.  Yet most goats in Haiti are forced to eat grass, as deforestation has greatly reduced the number of trees in Haiti.   Not only is grass less nutritious for goats, but it also can harbor the parasites we are trying to avoid.  

 

Healthy goat grazing leaves, away from potentially contaminated

 soil

My time has also been spent researching what trees and plants can provide not only good nutrition for goats, but also can provide protection against parasites.  Likely front-runners include: sericea lespedeza, haematoxylon campachianum, wormwood, cassava, tobacco, and Guinea grass.  The interesting characteristic of these plants is that they all contain high amounts of tannin.  This tannin, for reasons yet unknown, repels and inhibits the proliferation of internal ruminant parasites.  Of course, trees that are high in nutritional value, even if they lack any specific anti-parasitic activity, will also be considered.  Moringa olifera comes to mind and is increasingly popular in Haiti.  Once we identify good candidates, determined in part by successfully procuring seeds or plant starts, we can begin their propagation in Makouti’s nursery.  This spring, these young plants will be transplanted to their permanent locations close to the farmers Benito is working with.

Change is often accomplished in incremental steps.  I hope is that through the efforts of the Farmer to Farmer program, the Haitian goat farmer will have a more prosperous 2015 than it did this year.  With a little bit more knowledge and investments in improved animal husbandry practices, this goal will be realized. 

Disclaimer: This program is funded with the generous support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This blog does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US government.