Livestock for Health Project

Summary

Children 5 years and below, and pregnant/lactating women in pastoralist communities suffer a high burden of acute malnutrition. Improving the health and productivity of animals can reduce the risk malnutrition during the dry periods. The aim of this study is to assess how providing livestock with feeds during critical dry periods can improve household milk availability, consumption and risk of malnutrition in pregnant and lactating mothers, and children 5 years and below.

The study will be a cluster randomized control trial conducted in Marsabit County and will involve a total of 1800 households that own livestock and have children 5 years and below. The households will be divided into three groups and each group will have a total of 600 households. Group one, will receive livestock feed enough to maintain 2-3 milking animals during the critical dry period. The second group will receive similar livestock feed but will also receive education and counselling on human nutrition. The third group will be the control arm and will not receive any of the two interventions.

The study will aim to estimate how these interventions impact stunting and underweight in children and weight gain for pregnant women by collecting data on middle upper arm circumference, height, weight, and weight-gain during pregnancy every three months in a year. In addition, data on food consumption patterns such as number of meals taken, type/diversity of foods consumed including animal source foods, frequency of times and quantity of specific foods consumed) on at least 6-weekly basis will be collected. To further understand this problem the investigators will collect human illness data including on fever, diarrhoea, and respiratory syndromes among study participants during the regular visits. Socio-economic data including household demographics, incomes, expenditures, asset accumulation, gender roles, and workload and time allocation will be collected quarterly. Biological samples will be collected (venous blood and mother's milk) at recruitment, six months and 12 months. Screening for infections such as brucellosis, micronutrient and mycotoxin analysis will be conducted on the biological samples in order account for infections or conditions that could have an impact on nutritional status of study participants. The study will also assess which of the interventions provide value for money given that resources are scarce.

Conditions

• Malnutrition

Interventions

OTHER

Provision of livestock feeds

Households will receive livestock feeds (ranch cubes) for the select lactating animals during the dry season

OTHER

Nutrition counselling

Households will receive livestock feeds (ranch cubes) for the select lactating animals and will also be enrolled in to a nutrition counselling programme

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• UNICEF

  collaborator OTHER

• Washington State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Thumbi Mwangi, PhD · Washington State University, Paul G Allen School for Global Animal Health

• Josphat M Muema, PhD(c) · Washington State University - Global Health Kenya

• Mutono Nyamai, PhD(c) · Washington State University - Global Health Kenya

• Guy Palmer, PhD · Washington State University, Paul G Allen School for Global Animal Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Months

Max Age

60 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-09-04

Primary Completion

2021-12-31

Completion

2022-04-30

Countries

• Kenya

Study Locations