Kenyan researchers are leading an effort to strengthen food safety practices among the small and midsize poultry enterprises that feed Nairobi’s growing population. With foodborne illness estimated to cost the Kenyan economy one billion U.S. dollars annually, addressing food safety in the poultry sector is an important focus due to the impact of foodborne disease on public health, the economic costs arising from lost productivity and medical treatment, and the implications for food security and economic opportunity.
“In Kenya, where undernutrition rates are high and the population-environment balance is delicate, the poultry value chain plays a very crucial role in addressing hunger and poverty towards the United Nations’ first two Sustainable Development Goals: No Hunger and Zero Poverty,” said Professor Catherine Kunyanga, associate professor and associate dean at the University of Nairobi, who serves as co-lead PI for the project with Dr. Robert Onsare, Principal Research Scientist and Acting Deputy Director for the One Health Approach Research Program at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. “Poultry business has recently been picked up by women and youth in most parts of the country as a quick source of income and livelihood for many households because it is profitable and provides a good source of animal-based protein that assures households’ nutrition security in Kenya.”