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Scientists have discovered two genes in cattle that may help African farmers improve their livelihoods by preventing premature deaths in their herds from the trypanosome parasite that causes "sleeping sickness".
The illness causes an estimated U.S.$5 billion in livestock losses annually for African farmers across an area roughly the size of the United States. The zone stretches from Senegal on the west coast to Tanzania on the east and from Chad in the north to Zimbabwe in southern Africa. It is known as the "tsetse fly belt" after the insect that transmits the trypanosome parasite.
The parasite is best known for causing illness in humans, but the more devastating effect on Africans has been on their cattle and livelihoods.
"Trypanosomiasis is probably the single largest disease affecting African cattle and restricts what farmers can do in large parts of Africa, so it's very difficult to use cattle either for grazing or more importantly for agriculture, for plowing and pulling carts," said Harry Noyes, a scientist at the University of Liverpool. Africans also keep livestock for milk and fertilizer.
Noyes co-authored the report of the study's findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. The discovery is a culmination of research by scientists at the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Britain's universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh, and others
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