Field challenges of optimising trypanocide use in AAT
Published: 10 May 2021
A new paper led by University of Glasgow scientists, including the Institute's Professor Mike Barrett, has brought together the disparate strands of information that currently exist to create the most comprehensive overview of the problem of African Animal Trypanosomiasis yet collated in the twenty-first century.
A new paper led by University of Glasgow scientists, including the Institute's Professor Mike Barrett, has brought together the disparate strands of information that currently exist to create the most comprehensive overview of the problem of African Animal Trypanosomiasis yet collated in the twenty-first century.
The work, published in the journal Trends in Parasitology, draws upon lead author Dr Shauna Richards' own experience working alongside Dr Harriet Auty, Dr Liam Morrison (University of Edinburgh), Professor Barrett, Professor Steve Torr (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), and colleagues in Tanzania Dr Oliver Manangwa (Vector and Vector Borne Disease Institute), and Dr Furaha Mramba (Tanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency).
Probing the literature reporting on the issue of animal trypanosomiasis from across Africa, their review has now provided an invaluable contemporary understanding of the problem.
Animal African trypanosomiases are a series of diseases of livestock in Africa, caused by tiny single-celled parasites called trypanosomes that devastate animal husbandry in a part of the world where food stocks are under severe strain.
The parasites are transmitted by biting insects called tsetse flies. Although there are drugs available to treat the disease, and also insecticides and other ways to combat the tsetse fly, the disease still afflicts cattle and other farm animals across Africa causing billions of dollars of economic loss and contributing to food shortages where nutrition is scarce.
These diseases are neglected, however. Pharmaceutical companies do not see they can achieve a return on the investment needed to bring new drugs forward to replace those in current use, even though resistance is emerging to those existing drugs.
This neglect has also impacted upon our global understanding of the disease. Up-to-date and accurate statistics on the true reach of the disease don’t exist; therefore, the extent of the problem of resistance to current drugs is not clear, while the relative benefits of killing tsetse flies over using drugs has not been quantified.
However, this meticulous work has now provided a contemporary understanding of the situation and the challenges of controlling the diseases with the potential to inform efforts to control the disease.
Dr Richards, a veterinary epidemiologist in the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, said: “Farmers in sub Saharan Africa spend significant amounts of time, money, and resources to control African animal trypanosomiasis, but often do so with limited information, making it difficult to treat and control the disease in livestock effectively.
"Bridging the gap between farmers and pharmaceutical companies to improve effective use of available and future trypanocidal drugs will ensure sustainable livelihoods of underserved and remote farming communities, particularly those living near wildlife protected areas where the disease challenge is high.”
Professor Barrett added: “The importance of this particular work is in the bringing together of the disparate strands of information that currently exist to create a contemporary understanding of the situation of animal trypanosomiasis in Africa.
"The findings are likely to underpin policy decisions in countries where the disease is endemic and also feed into efforts underway at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to galvanise a coherent international strategy towards the control of this dire problem of mankind.”
Image legend: Members of the COMBAAT (An integrated approach to tackling drug resistance in livestock trypanosomes) research team interviewing farmers in Serengeti District, Tanzania.
- Photo by Dr Harriet Auty (2019)
COMBAAT is a collaborative project between the University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Vector and Vector Borne Disease Institute (TZ), the National Institute of Medical Research (TZ), and funded by BBSRC and GALVmed.
First published: 10 May 2021