People in tropical countries fear diseases called sleeping sickness, and other names, caused by tiny parasites called trypanosomes (Trypanosoma spp.) also known as tryps. Now there’s new science suggesting a way to reduce Animal African Trypanosomiasis in cattle (Bos primigenius) by selective breeding.
In sub-Saharan Africa, tryps which kill cattle are hugely important to people’s livelihoods and, therefore, to development away from poverty. African tryps are carried by tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) You can scroll down for maps. The flies don’t get ill from the tryps, but they carry them between people and between cattle. That is, these insects are disease vectors.
One of the most promising ways to reduce tryp disease is to breed cattle which resist it. Where tryps are endemic (always present) it’s no surprise that some of the local cattle have that disease resistance. For example West African dwarf cattle, the
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