Healthy chickens, healthy children? Exploring contributions of village poultry-keeping to the diets and growth of young children in rural Tanzania

Abstract

One in three Tanzanian children under five years of age is affected by stunting: an outcome of chronic undernutrition and an indication of impaired physical and cognitive development. The potential for livestock-keeping to contribute positively to children’s growth, including by providing nutrient-dense animal-source foods and household income to enable other nutritious food purchases, has been well-described but poorly demonstrated. Village chickens are an accessible and versatile form of livestock, kept in small free-ranging flocks by many households in resource-poor settings and often managed by women. This mixed methods research was undertaken in villages of Manyoni District in central Tanzania, alongside a project establishing a community-based vaccination service against Newcastle disease in village chickens. Significantly larger chicken flock sizes were identified as an outcome of vaccinating in a given campaign and of continuing to vaccinate at four-monthly intervals, compared to vaccinating less often or not at all. Chicken meat and eggs were infrequently eaten during the study period, with eggs more commonly hatched to increase chicken numbers and chickens retained for sale in times of need. Consumption of poultry products by mothers and their young children was closely linked and no gender-based differences in children’s consumption frequency were found. Analysis of national and regional food composition tables highlighted the need for recent and locally-derived data on the nutrient content of animal-source foods, to better reflect the products of indigenous livestock in low-input management systems. This thesis did not identify a significant impact of chicken-keeping on the height-for-age of children over a two-year period; however, importantly, it found no negative health or growth impacts which would undermine a continued focus on poultry interventions as a strategy to sustainably enhance nutrition at a household level.