Urgent Action to curb COVID to people and gorillas

This report covers the progress of Conservation Through Public Health’s (CTPH) project (#52950) on GlobalGiving “Urgent Action to curb COVID to people and gorillas”.

The last report was submitted in July 2023. At that time, the project had raised $25,257.75 of the $30,000 funding goal from 83 donors. To date, the project has raised $28,519.94 out of the $30,000 Funding Goal, thanks to all our individual donor on GlobalGiving like you.

As a recap to the main objectives of this project, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, our Village Health and Conservation Teams members (VHCTs) were among the Village COVID-19 Taskforces (VCTFs) who were recruited to manage the pandemic through Home Based Care, support and surveillance in their respective villages bordering Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
While prevalence of COVID-19 cases in Uganda has reduced (and testing has also reduced significantly), mitigation measures to prevent its onward spread and the spread of other emerging and/or re-emerging diseases amongst people and from the people to the endangered mountain gorillas and other wildlife and around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park remains critical. To support this, we have done the following in this quarter:

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), together with other health and conservation partners, identified, recruited, and trained an additional 99 new VHCTs to expand the program as well as to replace those that had retired and/or moved away which had created a gap in program outreaches.

CTPH scaled up the VHCTs program to two more parishes of Muramba and Ngara, where 75 VHCTs were recruited and 2 parish Coordinators were selected among the 75 VHCTs. All the 75 VHCTs were trained in priority One Health and conservation issues and service provision. This scaling up will help to increase the coverage of our programs to address Population, Health, and Environmental issues and improve community health, wellbeing, emergency disease mitigation and gorilla conservation around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This brings the current number of VHCTs to 429.

Gorilla Health Monitoring

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) field team, led by our Wildlife Health and Laboratory Technician, Annaclet Ampeire, and Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers and Gorilla Guardians, continued their routine gorilla health monitoring through non-invasive gorilla fecal sample collection from gorilla nests of all the 25 habituated gorilla groups of Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Area (BMCA). This quarter, the team managed to collect and preserve a total of 826 gorilla fecal samples. All these fecal samples were analysed at the Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Centre to check for diseases including those they could have picked up from humans and livestock, enabling them to be attended to in a timely manner if health risks were identified.
Together with VHCTs, VCTFs and other Health and Conservation partners, we remain alert to swing into action in case there are any cases of COVID-19 or other emerging or re-emerging zoonotic diseases.

We would like to thank GlobalGiving and all the individual donors for the continued support to protecting mountain gorillas and supporting the communities living around the gorillas’ habitat of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Links:

• Visit our website to learn more about our work

This report covers the progress of Conservation Through Public Health’s (CTPH) project (#52950) on GlobalGiving “Urgent Action to curb COVID to people and gorillas”.

At the time of the last report, the project had raised $20,901.68 of the $30,000 funding goal. To date, the project has 145 donations from 83 donors amounting to $25,257.75 of the $30,000 funding goal.

What we have done

Village COVID-19 Taskforce (VCTF) members have continued to be on standby to attend to any COVID-19 and other infectious diseases emergencies. As per the last report, there were no COVID-19 cases reported in the villages around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP). While there remain no confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in these villages, COVID-19 does continue to be prevalent in Uganda and, as such, mitigation measures to prevent onward spread amongst people and to the endangered mountain gorillas remains very important.

To support this, VCTF members have continued to sensitize people on how to reduce zoonotic disease transmission among people and from people to mountain gorillas and other wildlife.

Our team is continuing to monitor all habituated mountain gorilla groups of Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Area (BMCA) through non-invasive collection of gorilla fecal samples from gorilla night nests. Samples are analyzed at the Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Centre’s field laboratory (built with funding from Tusk Trust) for diseases and infections that they have and/or could be sharing with people or livestock.

We have collected and analysed 762 gorilla fecal samples during this reporting period. Our team, together with Uganda Wildlife Authority and veterinary officers from local governments around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) trained 67 Community Conservation Animal Health Workers (CCAHWs) from 8 Parishes around BINP.

Part of the CCAHWs roles is to do basic Veterinary care of domesticated animals and report any animal diseases in the villages around the park. The presence of CCAHWs reenforces the work of VCTF members because the majority of the VCTF members also serve as CCAHWs. Both VCTF members and CCAHWs are also trained in case definition and reporting on sick animals, identification of clinical signs of common diseases and handling them, focusing on zoonotic, Gorilla, and other wildlife related diseases. They are also trained in demonstration and practical use of field equipment such as sample collection ports and drenching guns, among other equipment.

We would like to thank GlobalGiving and all the individual donors for the continued support to protecting mountain gorillas and supporting the communities living around the gorillas’ habitat of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Links:

• Visit our website for more information