ETHICOBOTS (Ethiopia Control of Bovine Tuberculosis Strategies)

埃塞俄比亚是撒哈拉以南非洲人口第二多的国家，人口增长迅速。它是一个以农业为主的最不发达国家，通过雄心勃勃的国家增长和转型计划，努力摆脱极端贫困，到2025年达到中等收入水平。畜牧业对国民收入的贡献很大，是经济发展的支柱之一。在快速增长的城市人口对乳制品和肉制品的高需求的推动下，以生产力较低的当地Zebu牛为主的传统粗放型农业系统正在被进口荷斯泰因-弗里西亚牛及其杂交品种的集约化养殖所补充和取代。虽然牛结核病（bTB）在埃塞俄比亚流行，但由于其相对抗性，当地Zebu牛的患病率较低。然而，主要城市中心附近奶牛场的扩张已经造成了感染结核病的外来牛的热点。与发达国家不同，埃塞俄比亚没有法律要求检测和扑杀受感染的牛，因此，由于城郊地区奶牛场的扩大，bTB有可能在牛的贸易路线上迅速传播，这是一个真正正在出现的危险。我们建议通过一系列相互关联的社会和生物科学研究，包括新兴的牲畜系统、受影响农民的生计和现有的bTB控制工具，在对该病流行病学及其决定因素进行调查和分析的基础上，制定埃塞俄比亚bTB控制战略。我们将确定不同地区奶牛的疾病流行情况，捕捉牛的交易和交换机制，研究家庭的风险管理和缓解做法，并记录普遍存在的社会、文化和经济因素如何影响它们。我们将量化暴露的集约化农场和屠宰场工人的结核负担，并确定如何在贫困家庭中管理疾病和健康。当地对感染和疾病传播、应对机制和性别角色的认识将有助于解释消费习惯。反过来，这些可能会增加疾病风险，并影响不断扩大的高风险群体的贫困和福祉。我们将比较本地牛和荷斯坦牛的疾病易感性，并评估接种卡介苗对杂交牛的保护程度。根据这些调查收集的多学科信息，我们将在埃塞俄比亚的情况下评估各种结核控制战略的可行性，如疫苗接种、控制动物运动和健康教育。我们将确定影响实施的因素，如成本效益、社会和文化的可接受性和实用性。这将与埃塞俄比亚研究人员和机构有针对性的能力建设相协调，以增强多学科科学能力，促进长期可持续的当地研究。研究结果将提供实用和有效的bTB控制策略，一旦实施，将显著降低bTB的高发率及其在不断扩大的乳制品行业的人畜共患病转移；尽量减少感染bTB的奶牛的交易，以保护国家zebu牛群和贫困农民的生计；并降低高危人群患人畜共患病的风险。目前的建议以以往与埃塞俄比亚政府在结核病问题上成功合作的经验为基础，重点关注这个发展中国家奶牛场牲畜系统性质正在出现的迅速变化，这种变化影响到穷人的生计和健康。该项目将在有关政府单位和当地社区在实地的积极参与下进行，以最大限度地将成果落实到政策和实践中。预期的主要结果是减少人畜共患疾病对最不发达国家穷人及其牲畜的影响。

Ethiopia is the second most populous sub-Saharan African country with a rapidly growing population. It is a least-developed, predominantly agrarian country struggling to emerge from extreme poverty, through an ambitious national growth and transformation plan, to achieve middle income status by 2025. Livestock contributes to a high proportion of national income and is one of the pillars to economic development. Traditional extensive farming systems with the less productive local Zebu cattle are being supplemented and replaced with intensive farming of imported Holstein-Friesian and their cross breeds at a rapid rate driven by high demand for dairy and meat products of a rapidly growing urban population. Although bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is endemic in Ethiopia, the prevalence is low among the local Zebu cattle because of their relative resistance. Expansion of dairy farms around major urban centres has however created hotspots of TB infected exotic cattle. With no legal requirement to test and cull infected cattle in Ethiopia, unlike in developed countries, 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.We propose to develop 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. We will determine disease prevalence among dairy cattle in different areas, capture cattle trading and exchange mechanisms, study risk management and mitigation practices for households and document how prevailing social, cultural and economic factors impact them. We will quantify the burden of bTB among exposed intensive farm and abattoir workers and determine how illness and health is managed in poor families. Local perceptions of infection and disease transmission, coping mechanisms and gender roles in order will help explain consumption practices. In turn, these may enhance disease risk and impact poverty and wellbeing amongst an expanding high risk group. We will compare disease susceptibility among the local and Holstein cattle and evaluate the degree of protection given by BCG vaccination to cross-breed cattle. Based on the multidisciplinary information gathered by these investigations, we will assess the feasibility of various bTB control strategies such as vaccination, control of animal movements and health education within the Ethiopian context. We will determine factors that affect implementation such as cost-efficiency, social and cultural acceptability and practicality. This will be coordinated with targeted capacity building of Ethiopian researchers and institutions to enhance multidisciplinary scientific capabilities for sustainable local research for the longer term.The results will provide practical and effective bTB control strategies, which when applied, will significantly reduce the high rate of bTB and its zoonotic transfer in the expanding dairy sector; minimize trading of bTB infected dairy cattle to protect the national zebu herd and the livelihood of poor farmers; and reduce the risk of zoonosis in high risk populations. The current proposal builds on previous experience of a successful collaboration with the Ethiopian Government on bTB to focus on an emerging rapid change in the nature of livestock systems in this developing country, dairy farms, that impact on the livelihoods and health of poor people. The project will be carried out with the active participation of the relevant government units and local communities in the field to maximize the likelihood of implementation of results into policy and practice. The main expected outcome is reduced impact of a zoonotic disease on poor people and their livestock in a least developed country.