Combating sleeping sickness in cattle and people. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
A safe, accurate and easy-to-use test is now available to screen for trypanosomes. Spread by tsetse fly, these tiny parasitic organisms cause serious diseases like nagana in cattle and sleeping sickness in people. Previously, screening to prevent the spread of these diseases was slow and inaccurate. Now, just one drop of blood is enough to provide the DNA needed for analysis, and this can easily be attached to a sample-collection card and posted to a laboratory for testing. The system could have a major impact on livestock and on poor producers' health and livelihoods, and is already being used in parts of Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. But, because most people aren't aware of its benefits, this ready-to-use technique urgently needs to be promoted.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts on Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (11 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
AHP01, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 58.