TRAFFIC is pursuing an integrated approach at a global level exploring how management of trade in wild animals can be improved in terms of safety from zoonotic disease risk, together with increased compliance with existing criteria for sustainability and legality. Combinations of policy and regulatory change, supply chain management and traceability, risk analysis and disease risk mitigation, together with Social and Behavioural Change (SBC) will need to be applied. TRAFFIC understands that considerations of context-specific actors such as livelihoods will also need to be applied in order to shift human behaviour towards safer and more sustainable management of human-animal (wildlife as well as domestic livestock) interfaces. Based on initial scoping of priorities in four countries in Africa and Asia under the USAID Wildlife TRAPS project (an ongoing collaboration at global level between TRAFFIC and IUCN), an important opportunity for a pilot project in this multi-disciplinary field has emerged in Tanzania (TZ).

Zoonotic disease ‘spillover’ events have frequently been attributed to the wildlife trade, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, much remains to be to learned regarding the nature and magnitude of zoonotic disease risks from wildlife trade relative to other driving factors behind disease spillover including land-use change, agricultural and livestock production, and a number of anthropogenic factors at various human-animal interfaces. Given the variety of wildlife trade supply chains and their international scope, disease risk analysis and risk management need to be instigated at multiple levels and targeted solutions must necessarily be bespoke to local contexts. Risk management measures also need to be acceptable and sustainable: the Tanzania case study provides a valuable opportunity to develop a specific risk-management approach which has government and agency buy-in from the outset.
Working alongside the TZ government, private sector and civil society, TRAFFIC will develop a bespoke approach to zoonotic disease risk analysis and risk management, which incorporates One Health concerns together with insights from supply chain analysis identifying critical control points for mitigation of zoonotic disease risks.
Additional funding from GIZ will support TRAFFIC to gather robust data to inform the nature of zoonotic threats and potential spillover risks, as well as consideration of traceability systems, the importance of livelihoods, and compliance with supply chain management protocols by priority stakeholders to ensure any legal trade is both sustainable and safe.

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES:

The main tasks of the Senior Project Manager – Wildlife Trade and One Health will include, but are not limited to, delivering relevant outputs and outcomes towards achieving a safe and sustainable supply of legal wild meat in Tanzania.

The SPM – WLT and One Health will lead the implementation of the project in collaboration with a range of partners, namely, the government of Tanzania, the East African Community, and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Science, University of Edinburgh, UK. The role will be responsible for production of a disease risk analysis, field research, stakeholder workshops, and dissemination of outputs, including a blueprint for disease risk management. The SPM – WLT and One Health will also be responsible for compiling technical progress reports, monitoring the project budget and timelines, and ensuring compliance with donor guidelines.

SUPERVISION:

The SPM – WLT and One Health post will be managed by the TRAFFIC East Africa Programme Office Director with technical supervision by a Lecturer in Wildlife Health and Conservation Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and support from the Wildlife TRAPS Project Leader. The SPM – WLT and One Health will supervise a Project Support Officer.

SPECIFIC DUTIES:

The SPM – WLT and One Health will be responsible for ensuring the following objectives are met:
1) To identify critical control points (CCPs) in the game meat supply chain for disease risk management, including any high-risk practices, and to prioritize pathogens for management, together with ensuring legality and sustainability of supply;
2) To understand the context-specificity of mitigation measures, including roles played by responsible government agencies and civil society actors, including socioeconomic considerations, in managing safe, sustainable and legal supply of game meat.
3) To characterize the zoonotic disease risks presented by the game meat supply chain, and identify and explore practical options for reduction of zoonotic risk. Specifically, this will:
a.Estimate risk for zoonotic disease occurrence at each critical control point;
b.Identify zoonotic risk reduction measures that are effective, feasible and acceptable;
c.Collect samples for determination of zoonotic pathogen presence and prevalence in traded commodities, to inform the risk estimation;
d.Integrate local expert knowledge in the analysis and in development of mitigation measures;
e.Inform policy at national, regional and international levels and provide a blueprint for zoonotic disease risk reduction in wildlife trade.
4) To build a supply chain management model that supports risk reduction at identified critical control points, including game meat butcheries, markets/points of sale, and consumers.
5) To strengthen capacity of the Tanzanian Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA), Veterinary Services Division, and other responsible agencies in developing a One Health-driven approach to game meat traceability and low-risk practices. This will also take into consideration curriculum development for inter-agency capacity building, including complementary project efforts targeting cross-border checkpoints.
6) To share results and insights from this work for potential adaptation to other sub-national contexts in Tanzania, as well as regionally via the East African Community Secretariat, and globally to assist in efforts to reduce disease risks associated with wildlife trade.