Professor M. Carrington and Dr T. Manful: Trypanosomes infections in individual cattle in Ghana

Описание: Dr Theresa Manful is a researcher at the University of Ghana, Legon and a CAPREx Fellow collaborating with Professor Mark Carrington (Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge).

Animal trypanosomiasis is a disease that is caused by infection with one or more species of trypanosomes and affects both domestic and wild animals in sub-Saharan African. The disease has a serious impact on agriculture production and a direct effect on the economic development in the affected regions. There are at least five species of trypanosomes that has been detected in cattle in Ghana with the infection caused predominantly by Trypanosoma vivax and Trypanosoma congolense. The prevalence of animal trypanosomiasis is high, and has previously been reported to range from 5 to 50%. African trypanosomes have evolved a sophisticated system of antigenic variation that is thought to facilitate long-term infection of the host. However, there are minimal studies on how trypanosomes infection progresses over the lifetime of cattle and how infections are influenced by environment. It is not known, for example, whether an infection acquired at an early age persists for the lifetime of the animal. This study is to characterize lifetime infection with trypanosomes in individual cattle in Ghana using molecular fingerprinting and sequencing. Detection and characterization of trypanosome species present over the first four time points have been determined. Further analyses and verifications are underway. The outcome of this project will be a better understanding of animal trypanosomiasis and trypanosome biology, and will inform control strategies.