Investigating the epidemiology of trypanosomiasis in domestic livestock at the micro-scale in Busia, Kenya

Trypanosomiasis in Kenya is no longer viewed as a public health issue, as only sporadic sleeping sickness cases are reported from historic foci such as Busia. Trypanosomiasis is thus mainly perceived as a constraint on livestock production. The responsibility for tsetse and trypanosomiasis control in Kenya has therefore increasingly shifted from the state to individual livestock owners; this drastically reduced the scale of control approaches. This thesis examines the epidemiology of both animal infective and zoonotic trypanosome species in a range of domestic livestock at the micro-scale, in Busia, Kenya. The work is based on a unique crosssectional census data set of the entire livestock population in two study sites in Busia, employing sensitive molecular tools (PCR) to detect trypanosome infections.Cattle were the largest reservoir of trypanosomes with an infection prevalence of 20.1%, followed by pigs (11.5%). A low prevalence of infection was detected in small ruminants (3.3%). Human infective trypanosomes (71 b. rhodesiense) were detected at a low prevalence in cattle (1.5%) and pigs (2.9%). Key clinical signs for trypanosomiasis infection (anaemia & poor body condition) were only observed in a minority of infected cattle (