Participatory investigations of bovine trypanosomiasis in Tana River District, Kenya

Abstract

Abstract. Participatory research on bovine trypanosomiasis was conducted with Orma pastoralists in Tana River District, Kenya. The use of participatory methods to understand local perceptions of disease signs, disease causes, disease incidence by cattle age group, seasonal patterns of disease and preferences for indigenous and modern control methods are described. Results indicated that local characterization of diseases called gandi and buku by Orma pastoralists was similar to modern veterinary knowledge on chronic trypanosomiasis and haemorrhagic trypanosomiasis (due to Trypanosoma vivax), respectively. The mean incidence of gandi varied from 10.2% in calves to 28.6% in adult cattle. The mean incidence of buku varied from 3.1% in calves to 9.6% in adults. Pearson correlation coefficients for disease incidence by age group were 0.498 (P < 0.01) and 0.396 (P < 0.05) for gandi and buku, respectively. Informants observed cases of trypanosomiasis in 24.1% of cattle (all age groups); these cases accounted for 41.8% of all sick cattle during the preceding 12-month period. Eight indigenous and three modern trypanosomiasis control methods were identified. Results indicated that an integrated approach to trypanosomiasis control based on private, individual action was well established in the assessment area. When presented with four different trypanosomiasis control methods, community representatives selected`better use of trypanocides' as the most preferred intervention and`community-based tsetse control' as the least preferred intervention. This finding prompted researchers to modify the original project activities. Constraints facing the sustainability of community-based tsetse control are discussed.

Participatory investigation of Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in goats in the Hammer and Benna-Tsemay districts of southern Ethiopia

“…Matrix scoring as described by Catley et al (2002a) was used to understand local perceptions of the main clinical signs and causes of CCPP (locally termed Sompo). In order to avoid exaggeration of responses to Sompo, and check that informants understood the matrix scoring method, list of major diseases were identified and included in the matrix to crosscheck diseases.…”

“…In this method researchers act as facilitators and technical advisers, and research methods are often based on the interviewing, visualization and scoring methods of the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) (Catley et al 2002a). Informal interviewing, visualization and ranking or scoring described by Mariner (2001) are important participatory methods used in the participatory epidemiology.…”

A heterogeneous population model for contagious bovine pleuropneumonia transmission and control in pastoral communities of East Africa

“…The participatory epidemiological techniques of semi-structured interviews, proportional piling (Catley et al, 2001(Catley et al, , 2002, mapping and Venn diagramming (Mariner and Paskin, 2000) were used to collect information on the relative size, types of interactions and extent of contact between pastoral groups in the Boma area of southern Sudan and at Gibaso in northern Tanzania. In the semi-structured interviews, open-ended questions were used to identify tribal and clan groupings.…”

A model of lineage-1 and lineage-2 rinderpest virus transmission in pastoral areas of East Africa

“…In Sudan, population structure, life-expectancy and rinderpest case mortality were estimated from proportional piling exercises (Mariner and Paskin, 2000;Catley et al, 2001;Catley et al, 2002). Briefly, 15 different groups of respondents who had identified rinderpest as a problem in response to an open-ended question were asked to identify the cattle age classes they recognized and the age limits for each category.…”

“…Mariner and co-workers (Mariner and Paskin, 2000;Mariner and Roeder, 2003) have described methods for conducting timely participatory disease searches to document the current and historic incidence of rinderpest to serve as an intelligence base for decision-making. The Nilotic pastoral communities of southern Sudan (Schwabe and Makuet Koujok, 1981) (Catley et al, 2001) and the pastoral communities of Somali ecosystem (Catley and Mohammed, 1996;Catley et al, 2002) in the Horn of Africa are livestock specialists and excellent observers of disease incidence. Appropriate combinations of participatory disease intelligence and quantitative data form the most complete information base for strategic decision making in pastoral systems.…”