General

To strengthen the capacity and capability to diagnose and control zoonotic diseases of livestock

Specific

To develop recommendations for sustainable control of specific zoonoses

1. To carry out epidemiological studies on brucellosis in cattle, cysticercosis in pigs and salmonellosis in poultry in the western division of Gambia and in the Casamance, Senegal


2. To design packages for prevention and control under local conditions


3. To train 3 PhD-students

2007
Pilot surveys on salmonellosis, brucellosis and cysticercosis were carried out in the western division of The Gambia and the Casamance region of Senegal. A preliminary survey on brucellosis in cattle showed that seropositive animals were present in 3 out of 13 herds. Brucella abortus 3 was identified in the hygroma fluid of some of the infected cattle. Concerning salmonellosis it was found that 9 out of 11 poultry farms and 1 out of 4 street restaurants were infected. A total of 78 Salmonella isolates were collected of which 54 were confirmed and serotyped. Finally a small survey in 91 pigs using an antigen and an antibody detection ELISA for cysticercosis showed that 11 and 12% reacted positively, respectively. Larger surveys on a representative number of animals are currently going on in order to collect more data on the prevalence and the risk factors of these 3 zoonotic diseases.

2008
Salmonellosis in poultry
A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence and distribution of Salmonella spp. in poultry broiler farms at the end of the rearing period and in poultry products in urban and peri-urban areas in Casamance (Senegal) and to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance profiles of the Salmonella serovars. Specimens from 57 broiler poultry farms, 285 chicken carcasses and 42 street-vended-restaurants were cultured. Salmonella was found in 261 isolates and 18 different serovars were identified. The proportion of farms from which Salmonella spp. was detected in chicken faeces, carcass skin and muscle was 35.1 %,, 38.6% and 29.8% respectively. Salmonella spp. were found in 14.3% of the restaurants. The prevalence on skin and muscle was significantly associated to the detection of Salmonella in faeces (P? 0.001). High levels of resistance were found to commonly used antibiotics both in human medicine and in poultry production systems in Senegal, particularly to the complex Trimethoprim + Sulfamethoxazole, Tetracyclin, Trimethoprim, Streptomycin and Sulphonamides. Salmonella serovars were susceptible to fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins. A large proportion of isolates belonging to 11 serovars showed multiple resistance to two or more antibiotics.

Cysticercosis in pigs
A representative sample of the pig population (n=1705) in 3 areas of the Casamance and one area in the Western region of Gambia was examined for cysticercosis using tongue inspection and antigen detection ELISA. According to the area the prevalence of T. solium cysticercosis varied between 0.2 and 0.3% based on tongue inspection and between 5.7 and 26.7% based on Ag-ELISA. Simultaneously a survey was carried out in 279 households to collect information about knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to cysticercosis. All households consume pork. but only 64.5% and 6.5% know porcine and human cysticercosis, respectively. Epileptic people were present in 7.2% of the households.

Brucellosis in cattle
Two large scale serological surveys were carried out. In the first one in the region of Kolda (Casamance) a total of 1974 serum samples were collected from 201 herds in 44 villages. In the second one 1391 samples were collected from 68 herds in 18 villages of Western region of Gambia. The serological analysis of these samples is currently going on. A questionnaire survey on risk factors for brucellosis was carried out in both regions. Brucella isolates from hygroma fluid of cattle were phenotypically and genotypically (VNTR) characterized. All 3 isolates belonged to Brucella biovar 3 and had the same VNTR profile.