A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. MOROGORO, TANZANIA.
Livelihoods of the Maasai people in Northern Tanzania is sustained by Agriculture, specialising mostly in pastoral livestock production which is threatened by vector-borne diseases of which trypanosomosis is one of them. The vulnerability of these communities to trypanosomosis is enhanced by their interaction with wild animals due to their proximity to wildlife interface areas which are highly infested with ticks and tsetse flies. A study was carried out from June 2015 to March 2016 to quantify trypanosome infections in cattle and tsetse flies using PCR based molecular techniques that amplify the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) 1gene of the trypanosome ribosomal DNA. This study revealed an overall prevalence of trypanosome infections in cattle to be 17.2% (At 95% CI (14.91-19.68)) and a prevalence of 6.9% in tsetse flies. The highest prevalence of trypanosome infections in cattle was observed at the end of wet season. Out of the five study villages, the highest prevalence of trypanosome infections in cattle was observed in Loibor-soit-A (35%) and the lowest prevalence was found in Emboreet village (12.1%). The nPCR identified five Trypanosoma specieswhich by order of abundance areT. vivax (41.8%), T. brucei (20.9%), T. simiae (19.6%), T. theileri (10.0%), T. congolense (7.5%), and 2 yet to be identified putative species in 15.1% of the positive cattle. Mixed trypanosome infections occurred in 41.8% of the infected cattle and T. vivax/T. simiaeco-infection was most dominant (26.4%). This study also revealedthat ECF vaccinated cattle were 43% less likely to carry trypanosome infections and moreover, the proportion of cattle carrying three infections of trypanosome,T. parva and E. ruminantiumwas low.This study confirms prevalenttrypanosome infections in both cattle and tsetse flies and suggests the importance of comprehensive control regimes targeting ecological, biological and socio-cultural interventions in the Maasai communities of northern Tanzania.