Mycobacterium bovis in the Wildlife-Livestock-Human Interface of East and Southern Africa

• Applicant: Dr. Manfred Tanner
• Co-Applicants: Dr. Francis Gakuya; Dr. Paul David van Helden; Professor Dr. Rudovick Kazwala (†); Adelina da Conceicao Machado
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2009 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 82224187

Currently, infectious disease research is mainly focused on HIV/AIDS, malaria and human tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) in Africa. In contrast, research on BTB (Mycobacterium bovis) is insufficient and thus WHO identified M. bovis as one of the globally neglected zoonoses. Once introduced into a wildlife-livestock interface neither developing nor developed countries have been able to eradicate BTB (BTB) completely by unidirectional control programmes. Therefore, any control measures have to be directed to all three aspects of the wildlife-livestock-human interface of M. bovis. We selected two study areas in sub-Saharan Africa with high densities in wildlife and frequent wildlife-livestock interactions. We will address all three aspects of the interface by identifying infected wildlife species, assessing the prevalence of M. bovis in livestock, evaluating new serological tests, and assessing traditional methods of milk processing in order to improve food hygiene. The focus of this project is to upgrade national laboratories to regional research centres in Southern and East Africa, to support intellectual capacity building of the African partners, and to set up German-African as well as inter-African networks for current as well as for future cooperations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania
• Participating Person: Dr. Irmgard Moser