Village chickens: options to improve nutrition and health of HIV and AIDs affected individuals in Maracuene district, Mozambique

The prevalence of HIV is high in Mozambique. In young women, aged 15 to 24, the estimated HIV prevalence rate is 10.7%, compared to a prevalence rate of 3.6% among young men in the same age group. Nearly half of the people with HIV living in poor urban areas have a high prevalence of food insecurity. Village chickens can provide a scarce resource - animal protein - in the form of meat and eggs, and can be sold or bartered to meet essential family needs such as medicine, clothes and school fees. Two hundred and forty vulnerable households comprising women, orphans and vulnerable children and HIV - affected individuals were selected, trained in low-cost improvements of village chicken, and each received a chicken starter pack (three hens and one rooster) to improve their protein intake and improve nutrition. In a period of nine months, 98 hens had hatched 1210 chicks. With the increased availability of chickens, farmers started set ling more, but the consumption was still low. The number of chickens consumed per family over a three months period, increased from 1.02 to 1.51 and the average number of chickens sold per family in three months period, increased from 0.38 to 2.53 chickens. Thirty-six (21 male and 15 female) community vaccinators were trained and vaccinated 18,056 chickens in 1,957 households of the district, including in households of people affected by HIV and AIDS. The average flock size in the households that were vaccinated regularly increased from 8.5 to 10.54 after two vaccination campaigns. No reports of mortality of chickens with clinical signs of Newcaste disease were reported in the areas where vaccination took place. The farmers that performed better were selected to host the breeding and nutrition experimental studies in Mozambique under the Marker-assisted breeding of selected native chickens in Mozambique and Uganda.