How NARO Scientists’ Anti-Tick Vaccines Will Save Uganda Shs 300bn In Drug Imports

KAMPALA: Scientists at the National Livestock Resources Institute (NaLIRRI) have developed a safe and efficacious anti-tick vaccine. The vaccine has successfully been evaluated under laboratory conditions and confined to on-station clinical trials. NaLIRRI has now acquired ethical and regulatory approval from the National Biosafety Committee under the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST) and the National Drug Authority (NDA) to undertake the final field clinical trials across the country.

This brings hope to livestock farmers and the intervention will save Ugandan’s cattle population of about 14 million cattle from the devastating effects of ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBDs).

This news came to the fore yesterday, September 16, 2022, during the visit to the facility by the Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, who was also accompanied by his deputy minister, Hon. Fred Bwino Kyakulaga.

NaLIRRI is under the tutelage of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in Nakyesesa, Wakiso district. If the NaLIRRI vaccine passes the field trial stage, the country could save USD 83.3 million in forex (Approximately Shs 315 billion) which it incurs from importing about 378,000 liters of acaricides and 83,000 liters of associated drugs.

NARO officers led by the Director General, Dr. Ambrose Agona, took the ministers around as they toured seven innovation platforms at NaLIRRI.

“I really feel I should have come earlier to visit this facility but I needed first to study the sector and provide the appropriate policy direction,” Hon. Tumwebaze remarked after seeing the massive work being done at the facility.

The minister also noted he was happy that Uganda’s anti-tick vaccine is ready for field clinical trials, adding that it is great news for livestock farmers previously burdened by ticks and tick-borne diseases.

The NARO-developed vaccine will help tackle three tick species including brown ear tick, bont tick, and blue tick, all common in East and Central Africa but also diseases like East Coast Fever, anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis sometimes known as Redwater, reports Nile Post.

Dr. Swidiq Mugerwa, the director of research at NaLIRRI, said the vaccine will save a lot of money that the country has for years been losing in dealing with ticks and tick-borne diseases in livestock.

“Ticks and tick-borne diseases cause an economic loss of shs3.8 trillion annually to the country. The anti-tick vaccine will significantly reduce this loss,” Dr. Mugerwa said.

He said the trial will be conducted for a period of one year after which NARO will embark on registration of the vaccine, undertake massive production and roll it out to farmers through appropriate uptake pathways.

“NARO has constructed a massive vaccine research and production facility with the spatial capacity to produce over 30 million doses of the anti-tick vaccines annually, enough to vaccinate all the heads of cattle in the country,” Nile Post quotes him as saying.

The Tick-borne diseases scourge

Some scholars such as Young and others, have observed that tick-borne diseases (TBDs) are considered the most important animal disease challenge in Africa. In Uganda, they observe that the favorable equatorial climatic conditions suitable for livestock production also support large tick populations, which enhances the transmission of TBDs.

“Over 75% of total cattle losses in Uganda have been attributable to TTBDs and control costs for TTBDs in cattle accounts for 86% of the total animal disease control costs,” observes another group of scholars such as Ocaido and others.

The news of new anti-tick vaccine development in Uganda comes at a time when the country is facing ticks’ resistance to acaricides and many animal deaths in its wake.

In a 2021 study, Scientists at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain, National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI/NARO,  University of Murcia, Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain and, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University, concluded that the TTBDs are the major constraint to cattle production systems in Uganda, causing great economic losses to farmers through high cattle morbidity, mortality, control and treatment costs. The researchers are Paul D Kasaija , Agustín Estrada-Peña, Marinela Contreras, Halid Kirunda, and José de la Fuente ^.

“It has been suggested that the whole strategy for economic control of TTBDs should undergo a complete re-appraisal if a sustainable system is to emerge in Uganda,” they argued.

Their Study

In their study titled: Cattle ticks and tick-borne diseases: a review of Uganda’s situation, and published in the prestigious Science Direct journal, they observed that in Uganda, the loss caused by TTBDs is estimated at over USD 1.1 billion annually.

“The losses are realized as calf mortality (30% of the calf crop dies), farm disease prevention and control, farm input costs, loss in milk (USD 187 million) and meat production (USD 472 million), and blood loss (USD 26 million),” they observed.

“Unfortunately, there’s growing and fast spreading tick resistance to acaricides, which has prevented communities and the country from attaining optimal production and productivity essential for socio-economic transformation through the ARI” the researchers reasoned.

According to this study, Uganda’s fertile soils, abundant rainfall in most parts of the country, and conducive climatic tropical conditions together with the relatively high humidity (average above 70%), support a large tick population that transmits TBDs, including East Coast Fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis and heartwater.

The study by these researchers also established that ticks affect 80% of the world’s cattle population and are associated with numerous health and economic effects.

Quoting the works of Hurtado and Giraldo-Ríos9, Domínguez  and Lagunes ; “The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, for example, is known to cause the greatest economic impact worldwide because of its broad distribution, vector capacity, blood-sucking habits and the proportion of cattle that it affects. The tick causes gross financial losses of approximately USD 13.9 – 18.7 billion per year worldwide.”

In their recommendations, the researchers suggested that policymakers should take into consideration indigenous technical knowledge of livestock keepers on TBDs and the need for mapping and modeling the distribution of tick species and transmitted pathogens in Uganda

They further recommended that active monitoring and surveillance of TTBDs should also be conducted continuously to facilitate timely detection of high-risk areas and emerging acaricide resistance, reduce misuse of acaricide, document dispersal of ticks on translocated animals, assess risk, and predict future disease outbreaks

“Acaricides on the Ugandan market should be evaluated extensively to establish the best way to utilize them for maximum benefit and lowest negative consequences. In addition, zoning and controlled centralized supply of acaricides as previously proved efficient in slowing down acaricide resistance should be revived,” they added.

Surprisingly, they further recommended the development and implementation of effective anti-tick vaccines and consider this undertaking a priority in Uganda as in other African countries. This undertaking could be linked to current efforts behind the new vaccines by NARO scientists.

Uganda’s Meatatarian terrain

According to the 2019 statistics released by the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO), beef consumption in Uganda is only 6 kilograms per capita, which is below the recommended 50 kilograms by FAO. FAO also reveals that Uganda’s poultry meat consumption per capita reached 1.54 kilograms in 2019.

Uganda has 14.2 million cattle, 16 million goats, 4.5 million sheep, and 47.6 million poultry. The country also has 4.1 million pigs plus some donkeys and camels.