Bovine Tuberculosis

Ethiopia Control of Bovine Tuberculosis Strategies (ETHICOBOTS)

Expansion of dairy farms around major urban centres in Ethiopia has created hotspots of TB infected exotic cattle. The potential for rapid spread of bTB across the cattle trade routes through amplification by the dairy farms in peri-urban areas is a real emerging danger. This multi-disciplinary research is developing control strategies for bTB in Ethiopia based on investigation and analysis of the epidemiology of the disease and its determinants through a series of interlinked social and biological science studies, encompassing the emerging livestock system, livelihood of affected farmers and available tools for bTB control. 

The main aim of the ETHICOBOTS programme is to tackle the high burden of bovine tuberculosis in the Ethiopian dairy farm sector and to investigate the consequences of the on-going centrifugal trade of potentially infected dairy cattle to low prevalence regions and farming systems on transmission. 

This research is led by Professor James Wood. His research focussed on processes underlying emergence of infectious diseases, has various strands. Studies of mammalian influenza infection, particularly the dynamics of the generation of viral variants within hosts and during transmission, lyssavirus and henipavirus infections in African bat reservoir hosts and their potential impact in humans and bovine Tuberculosis persistence and control.