Trypanotolerant livestock in West and Central Africa. Volume 3. A decade's results

This volume presents major results obtained since the publication of volume 1 and 2 and updates national data on trypanotolerant cattle. The first part analyses populations and their trends between the two surveys and reviews research activities and development activities. It also gives recent information available on the potential and utilisation of trypanotolerant livestock. Part two presents recent data for the 18 study countries, as well as for Equatorial Guinea which was not covered in volume 2. This information should be studied in conjuction with volume 2 for an overall and updated view of trypanotolerant livestock production in each country. Countries are discussed in the same order in both volumes. An additional section on major developments occuring during the study period has been included at the end of each country study

Agricultural extension reform in Africa: Insights and lessons from livestock disease control in South-West Ethiopia

Agricultural extension systems across Africa are under great pressure to become more efficient and effective. Whereas proposals abound as to what African governments should do in order to achieve these goals, those addressing how they might do so are rare. The literature still offers little guidance as to specific factors and processes that likely influence development and diffusion of agricultural technologies in given circumstances. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the outcome of a multi-year, farmer-centred intervention to control trypanosomosis a devastating livestock disease transmitted by tsetse flies carried out by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in South-West Ethiopia. While not conceived as such at the time, this intervention emerges, in retrospect, as a real-world experiment in decentralised private provision of a traditional public extension activity. The nature of the control technology and several biophysical and socio-economic characteristics of the region selected for control combined to produce a self-reinforcing process key to the success of the initiative. The intervention suggests that it is the demand-side of agricultural extension systems that matters the most, and that in most cases, an 'organised articulation of demand' will be required. The internal logic of that 'articulation' is the exact reverse of that driving privatisation and decentralisation of extension systems. That logic also differs significantly from that guiding 'demand-led, farmer-participatory' approaches to extension reform

Evaluation of criteria of trypanotolerance

Evaluates teh criteria for trypanotolerance including three related characterstics, v.z. the ability to control parasitaemia, the ability to control anaemia, and the ability to develop an effective immune response

Exploitation of trypanotolerance traits in field conditions

Further to understand the mechanisms underlying trypanotolerance, the exploitation of resistance traits relies on the characterisation of these traits in the field and their practical measurement. The successful use of any criteria for identification of trypanotolerant breeds of cattle and/or superior animals within these breeds depends on the practicality of their measurement, on the strength of the linkage of the criteria with the economically important production traits such as viability, reproductive performance and growth, and on the associated genetic parameters. This paper discusses the relation between measurements of trypanotolerance livestock performance; genetics of trypanotolerance measurements; and future exploitation

Trypanotolerant livestock, a sustainable and essential component of livestock production systems under trypanosomosis risk in East and Central Africa

Trypanotolerance, the ability of some livestock species and breeds to survive, reproduce and remain productive under trypanosomosis risk without the aid of trypanocidal drugs, was recognised and exploited by farmers long before research on trypanotolerance began. The exploitation of trypanotolerant breeds is practiced as a major option for sustainable livestock production in 19 countries in the most humid parts of West and Central Africa. There are now N'Dama herds in nearly all West and Central African countries which could be the source of genetic material for further dissemination. Experimental and field studies reviewed in this chapter are providing the basic tools with which the trypanotolerance trait can be identified and exploited