Long-term occurrence of multiple drug resistance in Trypanosoma congolense at Ghibe, Ethiopia

Drug resistance in trypanosomes is increasingly being recognised as a constraint to livestock production in many parts of Africa. However the long-term stability of such resistance is unclear and has therefore been investigated over a 4-year period at a site in Ethiopia. The result shows that there was a high prevalence of multiple-drug resistant T. congolense populations in cattle at Ghibe in both 1989 and 1993. Furthermore, the multiple drug resistance generally appeared to have been associated with single rather than mixed infections. In addition for both years, trypanosome infections were generally highly pathogenic for cattle