The National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) has announced it has made a breakthrough in the development of an anti-tick vaccine.
NARO said it has been in collaboration with a group at the Health and Biotechnology (SaBio), Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC, CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Spain, headed by Prof. Jose de la Fuente .
According to NARO, during the last 10 years, this collaboration has resulted in the development of vaccines specifically targeting ticks that infest cattle in Uganda (brown ear tick, African blue tick and tropical bont tick.
The vaccines were derived from a protein called Subolesin which was extracted from native tick species. The early research efforts were undertaken by a NARO staff, Kasaija Paul as part of his PhD work under the supervision of Prof. Jose de la Fuente and Dr. Marinela Contreras at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Spain.
On Wednesday, NARO said they have now produced two types of vaccines notably the injectable and oral vaccine anti-tick vaccines.
“The injectable anti-tick vaccine is administered in the muscle of cattle around the neck region while oral vaccine is given to cattle through the mouth or mixed in a suitable cattle meal,” NARO stated.
NARO adds that the injectable anti-tick vaccine has been evaluated on five farms across the country representing five ecological zones of Uganda including Mbarara ZARDI farm in Mbarara City; Kiburara Prison farm in Ibanda District; Isimba prison farm in Masindi District; Maruzi livestock research station in Apac District; and Nabuin ZARDI farm in Nabilatuk District.
“During the 12 months of the field evaluation trial at Mbarara, Kiburara, and Isimba farms. Trial cattle were sprayed twice at Mbarara and completely not sprayed at Kiburara and Isimba farms. In addition, during the ten months of the field evaluation trial, trial cattle were only sprayed once at Maruzi and completely not sprayed at Nabuin,” NARO said.
“Trial cattle were sprayed twice. On all the farms, there were no deaths due to tick and tick-borne diseases during the trial period. NARO has already obtained a utility model patent for the injectable and oral anti-tick vaccines (UG/U/2023/6) and efforts are underway to acquire clearance from the national regulatory bodies to register and recommend use of the vaccines by farmers.”
In Africa, Tick-Borne Diseases (TBDs) are considered an important livestock disease challenge, especially among smallholder farms in East, Central, and Southern Africa.
In Uganda, the favourable equatorial climatic conditions suitable for livestock production also support several tick populations, which enhances the transmission of TBDs.
Over 75% of total losses of cattle in Uganda is attributed to tick-borne diseases, and control costs for these diseases in cattle account for 86% of the total animal disease control costs.
East Coast fever (ECF) is responsible for about half of all calf deaths in the pastoral and agro-pastoral production systems.
The majority of the cattle reared in Uganda is located within a “cattle corridor” which occupies a proportion of approximately 44% of Uganda’s total land area from the south to the north-central part of the country.
