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”.

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:

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