Fresh bid to tame leading livestock killer

Local and international scientists have started the search for an effective and cheaper vaccine to control the spread of East Coast Fever.

“This is an important project for us,” Philip Toye, a vaccine developer from International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) said.

“The information we expect to generate will greatly increase our understanding of the current live vaccine that is being used to protect animals against East Coast Fever. We can use this information to get this vaccine into wider use in the region,”

This project is being conducted jointly by scientific groups at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, in Scotland, and at ILRI, in Nairobi.

The project is part of a new initiative called Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock in Developing Countries funded by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Services Research Council, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Scottish Government.

ILRI’s research in this area is also supported by members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

East Coast Fever is an infectious disease caused by a tick-borne parasite scientifically known as Theileria parva and affects millions of cattle in eastern and southern Africa with statistics indicating economic losses due to its effects exceeding Sh22.5 billion ($300 million) annually.

According to DfID, tick-borne diseases are a major constraint to livestock production and food security in many developing countries.

They cause high morbidity and mortality, prevent the introduction of highly productive breeds of cattle, are expensive to control and place a huge economic burden on poor smallholder farmers.

East Coast fever (ECF) is one of the most serious of the theilerial species that threatens smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in eastern, central and southern Africa.

“There are at least 24 million cattle at risk, and more than one million die each year. The impact of these losses is magnified by the fact that improved breeds of cattle, which are more productive, cannot be introduced by smallholders owing to their particular susceptibility to tick-borne disease,” DfID said.

Very expensive

Although the disease can be controlled by treating infected animals with anti-parasitic drugs and by regularly spraying or dipping animals with anti-tick chemicals, these methods have over the years proven very expensive and difficult to apply for poor livestock keepers.

Farmers in Africa are currently spending in excess of Sh750 ($10) for a single dose of live vaccines existing in the market, a situation considered injurious to their earnings.

A popular method currently employed to control the disease is the immunisation of cattle by infecting them with live parasites while simultaneously treating the animals with long-acting antibiotics.