It’s generally agreed that control of tick-borne diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa has failed because of lack of epizootiological information and control strategies. These would probably be due to the various social farming challenges at the community interface, controlled by a variety of factors ranging from Government policies,farming technologies, climate change, soil and vegetation to human activities including livestock production systems as well as measures taken to control ticks and treatment interventions done by the farmers. There is still a great lack of knowledge regarding the epidemiology of the increasing HP burden in the region despite the efforts from the regional Governments in the livestock sector to promote the MDGs.In this study we carried out a survey to identify and determine the prevalence of the major HP in Central and Western Uganda. A questionnaire was administered and an on farm drug survey was conducted to determine any relationship between HP distribution and the seasons, farming practices in order to form a baseline for institution of relevant corrective measures within the study areas. In this study, more samples were collected from the Central region probably due to convenience, and demand for laboratory veterinary diagnostic services within these communities.
Prevalence of Theileria and Anaplasma infection was highest in Western region from this study, grow bucket which showed a 50% increment from previous studies in both Northern and Eastern regions of Uganda . It was also shown that infection with hemo-parasites was highest among Bos indicus while in the Bos taurus it was established at 57.9%, which is contrary to recent findings that indicated stability in Bos indicus. This would probably due to the farmer management practices in the rural communities which have led to the endemic instability of the parasites in the livestock populations. Generally, in both regions, farmers did offer medications without consultations from veterinarians due to the liberalization of the livestock industry , and they often wait until the condition has deteriorated thus accounting for the increased animal loses due to HP and the steady increase of the their prevalence within Uganda. Amongst farmers that attempted treatment, majority of them used antibiotics and anti-protozoa agents, while the rest offered no treatment intervention. HP were detected in cattle samples from farmers that had attempted treatment with anti-protozoan agents , which was higher than in those that that claimed to have used antibiotics as shown in Table 3.
The farm surveys also showed that the control of HP and vectors basically relied on the use of anti-protozoan agents as well as antibiotics which concurs with previous findings while some farmers offered no chemotherapeutical treatment. It was also observed that the limited human resource at the regional local Governments was not being fully utilized, thus making disease diagnosis and control further more complicated under the prevailing Government policies,dutch bucket for tomatoes thus contributing to the slow development of the livestock industry through increased animal mortalities and poor farming practices that have culminated into the severe climatic changes in these farming communities as shown in Table 10. The Government’s policy on liberalization , of the drug industry has been a great failure, because, the end point of the policy, was not to improve accessibility, but improve animal health and productivity and from our observations this is still elusive.The findings Table 2 and Table 3 showed that generally, cattle in the Western region are more severely affected by HP than those from the Central region, and PCV alone wouldn’t be used as measure of HP presence.Central region had a higher burden of HP than those from the Western .
This would probably be because the Central region lies more within the mixed rain-fed crop-livestock category in Uganda, which has a better climate favorable for farming which would further indicate that the burden of HP. The absence of screening centers for inter-district animal movements against animal diseases in the regions has further escalated the situation . Generally the occurrence and importance of HP is a reflection of complex interactions involving the causative organisms, tick vectors, the vertebrate hosts and the environment . These interactions are driven and modified by a wide variety of factors ranging from the environment, host, and the vectors as well as community farming activities. Trypanosome prevalence infection was four times greater in Western region than in the Central region , which concurs with the findings of Rubaire in Eastern Uganda which showed that prevalence of HP in cattle vary with agro-ecological zones and management in the Kenyan highlands. The Western region is also bordered by a couple of National Game Parks which continue to act as reservoirs for maintenance and carrier hosts in the regional farms as wildlife and cattle often intermingle during grazing.