Afrivet

AFRIVET

AFRIVET

Raising the Stakes

in Search of ‘One Health’ Solutions PRODUCTION: David Napier

Afrivet is the biggest locally-owned animal health company in southern Africa. Its products help vets, farmers and animal owners to prevent and treat disease, and promote food security and safety. Founder and Managing Director Dr Peter Oberem talks to Enterprise Africa about growing the company by building the product portfolio and opening up large new market sectors.

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‘‘One Health’ is a concept developed to encapsulate animal, human, and environmental health factors all under one common stable. The idea is that by focusing on positive health at one end of the chain will result in strong health benefits at the other end. It brings recognition that an interdisciplinary approach is required to understand complex health problems, and that the health of humans, animals and the surrounding environment are inextricably linked.

According to the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science: “A complex mosaic of human, animal and environmental interfaces creates an ever-increasing threat in the form of trans-boundary, emerging and re-emerging diseases. Over the last 50 years, the impact of these diseases, especially zoonotic diseases on the world’s economy, particularly animal and human populations, has prompted a more collaborative effort between animal and human professionals in addressing emerging and other global health threats.

Today over 60% of recognised human

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infectious diseases are zoonoses in that they originate from the movement of pathogens mostly from wildlife and livestock to humans.”

This is an idea shared by Gauteng-based Afrivet, one of the country’s leading animal health and pharmaceutical companies.

Formed in 2000 by Dr Peter Oberem, a seasoned vet and game rancher with degrees in entomology, veterinary science and postgraduate qualifications in veterinary parasitology, Afrivet has carved out a strong position in the market by focussing on the unique needs of southern Africa and delivering a One Health approach.

The company’s product range includes a host of ectoparasiticide solutions for veterinary parasitologyrelated problems. After starting out with a focus on ticks and tick-borne diseases, Afrivet moved into worm products and other ranges for poultry, feedlots, and eventually the companion animal range.

Of the top seven biggest animal health companies in South Africa, Afrivet is the only locally-owned business.

“There are many One Health issues in southern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa that are neglected by the multinationals and that is what gives us our enthusiasm, drive and direction,” Oberem tells Enterprise Africa.

“In this part of the world, there are some diseases that are really and truly One Health diseases. For example, Rabies.

Rabies in jackal, bat-eared foxes, kudu and stray or feral dogs can spread to humans – if you control it in dogs and cats then you control it in humans.”

Through its 19-year history, Afrivet has become a leading voice on the benefits of One Health and has developed a product range based around the concept, as Oberem explains.

“In the Eastern Cape, 62% of young people who get epilepsy get it from neuro-cysticercosis which is the cyst of a tapeworm. The cycle is maintained in pigs and if pork isn’t cooked properly, humans develop tapeworms and often then self-infect and develop the immature tapeworm cysts. The way to prevent it is to improve the environment by providing proper toilets and teaching how to cook

INDUSTRY FOCUS: AGRICULTURE

properly. We can then also treat the pigs to kill the cysts and vaccinate to prevent them getting cysts.

“We have a treatment in registration that kills the epilepsy-causing tapeworm cysts in pigs and we have negotiated with a company from India to market their vaccine against the formation of cysts in

pigs. We have applied for import permits and we are confident that everything will come through as this is a serious health hazard for humans.”

This progress fits perfectly with the Afrivet vision of ‘becoming the leading animal health company in Africa in the One Health industry’.

// THE MARKET RESPONSE, BASED ON THE STRENGTH OF THE AFRIVET BRAND AND OUR HISTORY OF ALWAYS PROVIDING SOUND TECHNICAL ADVICE, HAS BEEN VERY WELL ACCEPTED IN THE MARKET //

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HEALTHY PRODUCT RANGE With genuine care for the welfare of animals and conservation, and a passion for assisting in the growth of the regions commercial farming activity, Afrivet is looking to build on its history of delivering industry-leading products by adding to its impressive range. The company is already involved in a process of rebranding most of its longstanding products under its own brand names.

“Some of the products are new and some have been re-branded. Many of the Coopers products that were on the market were our developments and we utilised the Coopers brand name to help our credibility while we were still a young business. Now, Afrivet is in a strong position and our reputation is such that we can start building in our own product brands.

“We have a large number of products but our popular ectoparasitic range is now mostly branded as Eraditick. On the worm side, we have done away with the Coopers brand and we are calling our products Eradiworm.

“The market response, based on the strength of the Afrivet company brand and our history of always providing sound technical advice, has been very well accepted in the market,” says Oberem.

One new Afrivet product that is particularly exciting and gaining interest from game ranchers, safari lodges and large-scale farmers is the company’s 5% and 10% acaricidal balls. Developed to control ticks on buffalo, giraffe and various antelope species, this concentrated product is suitable for animals with a heavy tick infestation or tick damage and which cannot easily be treated by conventional applications. Interestingly, the product is packaged in small paintballsized capsules which can be fired from a paintball gun.

“It is something we’ve been working on for a very long time, the idea came up around seven years ago on my game farm,” explains Oberem. “Some species especially eland and kudu suffer from heavy tick burdens, particularly in their ears. This problem controls the tick

AFRIVET

infestations quite easily. It has become important to find a way to apply products to these wild animals but we can’t herd them into a pen and pour or spray product onto them.

“A partner of mine who was interested in paintballing started talking about the idea and as we already had a pour on product called Redline which we realised might be suitable to use in the paintballs. However, it became clear that we would need to concentrate the dose to make it powerful enough but small enough. We concentrated in ten times, down to 2.5 ml dose so that it could fit into a paintball and we had to do all the stability work, formulation work, field trials, and registration which took five years. The registration was difficult and that is what took the time as the concept was very new and people didn’t understand it even through it was the same as our Redline product which was

already registered, just concentrated.”

Animals weighing 65 to 125 kg require one 5% ball while a 10% ball will treat a 250kg animal. The shooter must aim for the hind quarter or neck depending on the area of infestation, must be no more than 50 metres away, and must be positioned square to the animal to ensure the ball doesn’t skim off the skin without bursting. Bigger animals, 250 – 500kg, can take two 10% shots.

The process is not invasive and allows for minimal human contact.

“We are always working on new products – some of our own and some from other producers from around the world,” says Oberem.

HISTORY IN SA Afrivet’s growth and success is largely down to its ability to service unique African problems using experience developed in Africa. Today, Afrivet is

present across the SADC region in Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa.

But in the beginning, the company was just five people with a small product portfolio and no brand recognition.

“I had been working for a decade in the animal health pharmaceutical industry, first with a company called Coopers.

Coopers was purchased by Hoechst before Hoechst was purchased by Intervet in 1999.

At that time, I was given the job of business development in the Southern Hemisphere – a very nice job, but one which would require me to move to the Netherlands.

That did not suit me as I own a game ranch in South Africa and conservation and game ranching is my passion. Also, my wife is a veterinarian, and she was contracted with the government to assist with improvement of production of African vaccines. So, I decided that I needed to do

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: AGRICULTURE

// PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA, WHO IS A GAME RANCHER, UNDERSTANDS AGRICULTURE AND UNDERSTANDS THE GAME RANCHING INDUSTRY // something else and the opportunity arose for me to consider doing something on my own,” remembers Oberem.

“One of the very clear things that I learnt over the previous decade in the industry was that the multinationals manufacture products which have a multinational selling footprint. They go for the development of products which are truly international. That leaves a number of ‘orphan’ diseases in Africa, and southern Africa in particularly, which are not important on a global scale. However, they are very significant regionally. For those people, who face deprivation caused by those diseases, they are extremely important. Often, they are left without a solution.”

This is where Afrivet has built its reputation. By providing stock owners in Africa cost-effective solutions, the company has created trust throughout its networks. It has also developed a quality reputation for the amount of research and knowledge it pushes into its markets.

Regularly putting out new books and papers, Afrivet is a recognised authority on African animal health.

“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation found our approach very interesting as we provide sound technical advice and deliver thorough research and training.

They engaged us to do a feasibility study on starting a company – maybe Afrivet, maybe not – in West Africa. For the past year, we have been developing a business plan to present to them soon.

“There are different challenges in West Africa but, if you move north from

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South Africa, you will find that a much higher percentage of farmers are smallscale stock owners as opposed to large commercial famers. So we do have the knowledge and we are always learning as we explore the growth of this type of market in South Africa,” says Oberem.

Agricultural development is one of the largest initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. To date, more than US$4 billion had been committed to agricultural development efforts, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Oberem participated in an event in Dubai where his input was welcomed by the Foundation and garnered attention from a number of international organisations including Edinburgh University, The Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (Tanzania), University of Liverpool and Iowa State University.

Locally, Afrivet has launched its own laboratory to help fast-track the roll-out of vital treatments “We develop the idea, have a product formulated, do the necessary trail and registration work, and then we use a toll manufacturer. In that way, we can focus on what we are strong at which is understanding the market, developing what is needed, and marketing based on science – providing sound technical advice has always been the basis of our marketing strategy,” says Oberem.

But there are fewer independent people available to do the developmental work that is required, including testing ticks for resistance to products. “We found it necessary to put our own resources into a new laboratory and we use it to identify the different species of ticks that cause problems and test them for resistance.

We also do the same with worms and that means we can advise people better on what active ingredients to use. It fits in with our philosophy of providing sound technical advice,” he adds.

ECONOMY-IMMUNE? Despite President Ramaphosa’s understanding of the

importance of the agricultural sector and his repeated calls for further investment in the industry, there has been no hiding from the slow economic climate in South Africa. Flat GDP growth figures are expected to continue for some time and this often results in extra consideration when it comes to investment, or no investment at all.

For Afrivet, economic sloth is yet to result in any slowdown but the company is very keen to realise long-term certainty in the markets.

“Political talk about land expropriation without compensation causes much uncertainty. Who, with a sound mind, would invest in agriculture in South Africa until there is some form of clarity on exactly what will happen?

“President Ramaphosa, who is a game rancher, understands agriculture and understands the game ranching industry. He understands the animal health industry very well and he wrote a book, Cattle of the Ages, about the Ankole cattle that he imported from Uganda.

He implemented a successful embryo transfer cloning programme and it is clear that he understands the scientific side of the industry – that gives me great hope,” says Oberem.

AFRIVET

To ensure the future of the market, Afrivet has decided to change its approach and try to open up a new, untapped but valuable sector.

“In South Africa there are 14 million cattle and 30 million sheep and goats. Half of those are commercially farmed and half are small scale stock owners in the former homelands on communal lands. 90% of the meat reaching the market comes from the commercial half,” says Oberem. “Our animal health industry is worth around R3.3 billion with 90% of product going to the commercial farmers. If we can increase production on the side of famers in communal areas, we would lessen our reliance on imports of meat (we currently import around R6 billion-worth) and that money we would have spent in markets like Botswana, Namibia, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand or similar, could be spent locally. If we can achieve this, our R3.3 billion market becomes a R6 billion market. This idea nudged us into a move which sees us focussing very closely on the small-scale stock owner in South Africa.”

The first step in this process is converting the wealth of information that Afrivet has put into the market for commercial farmers, and making it useful and understandable for smaller operators.

“We want it to teach them how to observe their animals, examine their animals and communicate about their animals.

“We are sponsoring the Chair in Primary Animal Healthcare at the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria and we have done that for the last five years. They help us to refine our material and develop the knowledge that will help train smaller stock holders. It’s good for food security, it’s good for the economy and it’s good for the country.

And we are also hoping that we will be able to develop a new market where we can dominate as a first mover.”

This re-focus and development of a new strategy comes at a difficult time for farmers in southern Africa and Afrivet, which recently expanded with the opening of a new facility in Mozambique.

Mid-March saw the tropical storm Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique and its neighbours causing chaos and catastrophe around the country. When the flood waters dissipate in Mozambique, the picture of devastation will become clearer but Afrivet is understandably concerned.

“It is most certainly a big problem,” admits Oberem. “We did not suffer any physical damage but the human tragedy and the thousands of animals that have

been washed away is heart-breaking.

It will certainly impact the market very severely as many customers are now gone. It means we will have to subsidise that business for some time. People are resilient and the country will come right in not too long a time.”

Looking to the future, Afrivet will continue to serve the industry with distinction, using its experience and knowledge to assist animal owners, farmers and veterinarians to prevent and treat disease, and promote food security and safety. Founder Oberem, who intends to retire in 2022, remains confident about the future.

“We are a growing business, our market share has grown, we have not felt the economic impact that commercial farmers have been feeling and, even in areas where we are not strong, we are still seeing positivity. Considering the relative youth of Afrivet in the market and the amalgamation of some of the multinationals, I think we have performed remarkably well,” he concludes.

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