Tackling wildebeest disease to save cattle

The wildebeest migration in Africa is a great annual spectacle, with over one million wildebeest migrating over 1,800 miles every year. However, for local farmers this natural wonder endangers their livelihood as the 400,000 wildebeest calves born each year harbour a viral disease deadly to livestock.

Wildebeest carry a virus that infects
livestock causing major concern
for farmers.
Source: Sarah Cleaveland
 

The disease - malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) - is a major concern for farmers whose cattle are essential to their economic and social welfare. To avoid MCF, they move their cattle to poorer upland grazing where they are exposed to other serious diseases.

“We have the first successful vaccine candidate and this is eagerly sought by the pastoralists and farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa, who have been lobbying for this for many years.”

Researchers led by David Haig, Professor of Animal Infection and Immunity at The University of Nottingham have already developed a candidate MCF vaccine for use in cattle. The next step is to test it in field conditions.

Over the next three years, his team of researchers will test the vaccine in Tanzania, develop it further as required and then look to make a new vaccine for a sheep virus which is very similar to the wildebeest virus and causes MCF in livestock in other parts of the world, including Europe, Indonesia, Australasia and the Americas. Successful MCF control will have a major impact on the quality of life of farmers and their communities as well as on the ecology of the plains where wildebeest and cattle co-exist.

The research project is part of a £13m initiative funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) to support farmers and families in developing countries.

The research team includes experts from Glasgow University, the Moredun Research Institute, in Scotland, and Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Central Veterinary Laboratory, and VETAID, Tanzania.