Meet the Aussie vet dedicated to saving chickens and giving villages food security

Raised on a grazing property near Taralga on the Southern Tablelands, Dr Alders still farms there today, where she's a member of the Upper Lachlan Branch of the NSW Farmers' Association and the Upper Lachlan Landcare Grazing Group.

At nearby Crookwell High School, Dr Alders got the grade she needed to study veterinary science at Sydney University.

"At university, I was fortunate to stay at a co-ed residential college that had a lot of international students and academics from various parts of the globe," she said.

"They introduced me to parts of the world I was unaware of and some of the injustices and hardships people face."

Those interactions planted the seed for Dr Alders' work with family farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, the Pacific and Australia for more than 30 years, developing sustainable infectious disease control in animals in rural areas in support of food and nutrition security.

"After I finished my PhD, instead of joining the academic treadmill, I went to the University of Zambia in 1989, where I worked at the new vet school. Then, I worked for what's now called Oxfam Australia for three years," she said.

"In 1992, I attempted to settle back in Australia when I received an invitation from Oxfam to work for them in southern Africa, which I accepted.

"I spent most of my time in Mozambique, which at that time was one of the poorest countries in the world and had just emerged from a 16-year war."

During that time, Dr Alders met a lot of livestock producers and realised Newcastle disease was the major constraint for village chickens, the most commonly owned livestock in rural areas across the world, and often, they're the only livestock women have some control over.

She embarked on a two-year project, which turned into 10 years of testing and importing vaccines before Mozambique imported the master seed of a similar vaccine of Australian origins so that they could produce the vaccine locally.

Today, the Newcastle disease control program in Mozambique is ongoing.

"Now they're set up to produce their own vaccine," she said.

"It's under the control of the national vet services, and they do that in collaboration with communities and NGOs.

"We have a cost recovery mechanism set up, an extension package and a training package to support the training of community vaccinators at the village level so they can handle the vaccine and administer it to the bird, so it is sustainable."

In addition to the Newcastle disease work, Dr Alders has spent time trying to link the effective control of livestock diseases with human health, using the One Health approach that links human, animal, plant and environmental health.

"My interest has been trying to improve nutrition security in those poorer households so young children would have the diet to be strong and healthy," she said.

Dr Alders also works with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, supporting the development of a 10-year global strategy to control avian influenza and in a consultancy role on the sustainable enhancement of small-scale livestock productivity.

"When you talk about small-scale livestock, people automatically think of low and middle-income countries," Dr Alders said.

"However, there are small-scale livestock producers in NSW, and that's probably somebody like me with 200 hectares or a bit smaller.

"Often, these livestock producers maintain the genetic diversity of livestock. It's some of those rarer breeds that don't always have immediate, large-scale commercial use at this point.

"But we don't know what the future will bring, so maintaining this genetic diversity in the country increases our resilience.

"So I'd like to think it's also contributing to sustainable and resilient agriculture in Australia."

Dr Alders is also a member of The Lancet Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover between animals and humans.

"This particular group is looking at how we prevent outbreaks," she said.

"My role is to focus on improved animal health in high-risk areas so we can try to promote vaccination of animals against key preventable diseases so animal mortality is less frequent.

"When a new pathogen emerges that results in animal mortality, it's easier to spot because it will be rarer.

"Having those vaccine value chains working effectively is critical in our immediate region and globally.

"For small-scale farmers, the loss of an individual animal is huge, particularly if you're a poor woman with limited ways of making money and caring for your family, but even if you're keeping a rare breed in Australia, a loss of those animals is not only your loss but a loss to our genetic genebank."

Dr Alders believes growing up on a relatively small grazing property prepared her for her international work, which requires her to understand the challenges farmers face.

"Farmers and producers do the best they can at all times, and people external to the farm environment don't understand how complex farming systems are," she said.

"What's helped me with my international work is that respect for the farmers and the producers, as the people who are most knowledgeable about their own circumstances."

Dr Alders said the similarities between Australian farmers and Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asian farmers were many and that the difference was just a matter of scale.

She highlighted adapting to climate change, farmers and producers being price takers rather than price makers, the shortage of veterinarians in rural areas, and gender discrimination.

Another similarity she has observed in most countries where she has worked, including Australia, is the government's approach to primary production.

"They don't understand farming systems, production systems, and farmers, meaning farmers are working in an environment where there's a lack of policy coherence," she said.

"And so, we're trying to figure out how agriculture can contribute to resilient farming in the face of climate change, but the policy environment is not there to support this transition.

"There's a lack of government interest in family farmers and a recognition of what family farmers add, not only in terms of the quality of what they produce and sell but also the way they contribute to their local communities.

"It's family farmers who are most likely to be good stewards of the land, promoting biodiversity and wanting to do the best by their animals and the land they manage.

"I don't think the government recognises that."

Dr Alders has gained great personal satisfaction from her international work, particularly where the Newcastle disease vaccine has been introduced sustainably.

"It means those households will have more regular access to eggs and chicken meat," she said.

"When you speak with them and ask when they last ate chicken, they'll say, 'last week', rather than 'I don't remember'.

"Those significant changes in households with poor diets help young children grow and women of reproductive age, pregnant women, and lactating women to maintain much better health.

"The other thing that's been really satisfying is seeing the improved profile of and engagement by women farmers and producers in the countries where I've worked.

"It's been lovely to see the profile of women in agriculture increasing in Australia as well."

Dr Alders also recalled her involvement with a lemur conservation project in the northern part of Madagascar as another satisfying career moment.

"Hunting wild animals is often what households do if they're food insecure," she said.

"There was a conservation NGO from the United States working in this area that interviewed farmers, and the farmers said, 'We'd really prefer to eat chicken, but our chickens keep dying. Therefore, we hunt animals in the forest, including wild lemurs'.

"I was invited to help interview the community and talk with its services to see whether it was possible or relevant to introduce a Newcastle disease control program.

"It was, but to get there, we had to fly out to the north of Madagascar. We drove as far as we could, then we had to hike into the community. We stayed with the community, in their households, and it was a fabulous experience. And then we came out by canoe, and that was really something.

"I'm pleased to say that the Newcastle vaccination work continues there and has been adopted by others working in other conservation areas."

Dr Alders has earned numerous awards, including the Inaugural Mitchell Global Humanitarian Award, which recognises Australians who have made an outstanding contribution to the cause of international development, and the Crawford Fund Medal for her contribution to the world's food security and childhood nutrition.

She was also recognised for distinguished service to veterinary science as a researcher and educator in maintaining food security in developing countries through livestock management and disease control programs by being made an Officer of the Order of Australia.

"I'm really grateful," she said. "Everything I've done has been the work of a team - from an excellent virologist at the University of Queensland to my colleagues in the countries where I've worked, to the people who translate, and those who helped me not to put my foot in it - they are all incredibly important."