In 2020, LAPROVET, a Ceva’s group company, has launched, in partnership with GALVmed and the Veterinary School of Dakar, a program called OneLab, which aims to develop a proximity network of private veterinary laboratories to facilitate the access of poultry farmers to diagnostic tools.
Through this initiative, a group of private veterinary doctors in Senegal was equipped and trained to conduct antimicrobial sensitivity tests, which allow, in less than 24h, to assess if a bacterium is involved in a clinical case and if so, what antibiotic molecule would be the most appropriate to tackle this bacterial infection.
Since the activities started in July 2021, more than 1,000 analyses were performed and reached all the sector’s stakeholders, from the small-scale poultry producers to the biggest integrated farms. This innovative technical tool is highly contributing to rationalize the use of antimicrobial use through:
- the diagnosis of bacterial infections. In many cases, the use of antibiotics is not relevant which gives an opportunity for vets to train farmers on their management practices and improvement of their vaccination program,
- reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance by prescribing the use of a single and efficient antibiotic molecular than larger-spectrum antibiotic combinations,
- limiting therapeutic failures considering the variability of the resistance profiles as well as the high level of resistance observed to some antibiotic molecules.
This initiative developed in collaboration with the public and private sectors improves the general knowledge on local antimicrobial resistance and supports the sector professionalization through a better access to diagnostic tools for both animal health professionals and farmers. This proximity service approach is often lacking in emerging countries despite its importance to support the development of the poultry sector and the inclusion of small commercial farmers. It also plays a complementary role with the global organizations contributing to the sanitary policies and risk assessment. These reasons explain why the demand for extending the network or widen the range of laboratory diagnostic tools accessible is increasing in many Sub-Saharan countries.
LAPROVET and Ceva are aligned with the World Organisation for Animal Health goal to reduce antimicrobial resistance worldwide and committed to actively develop the OneLab initiative in other emerging countries.