![]() This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this research by the European Union (Grants DCI-FOOD/2009/2002/346-739), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of the U.K., U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Kenyan Government. Received: MaAccepted: SeptemPublished: October 17, 2017Ĭopyright: © 2017 Saini et al. ![]() PLoS Negl Trop Dis 11(10):Įditor: Philippe Solano, Institut de recherche pour le developpement, FRANCE (2017) Protecting cows in small holder farms in East Africa from tsetse flies by mimicking the odor profile of a non-host bovid. Farmers’ perceptions of the repellent collars are very positive and socioeconomic studies indicate that adoption potential is extremely high.Ĭitation: Saini RK, Orindi BO, Mbahin N, Andoke JA, Muasa PN, Mbuvi DM, et al. In our trial, protection of cattle with the repellent collars resulted in considerably improved food security as a result of significant reduction in trypanocide use, improved health of the protected animals which enhanced traction power with more land being brought under cultivation. Thus, by mimicking the odor profile of waterbucks, ‘ cows in waterbuck clothing’ are essentially turned into non-hosts for tsetse flies and thus provide a new paradigm for innovative vector control. This study, which is the first of its kind, shows that the waterbuck repellent compounds can provide substantial protection to cattle from trypanosome infections by reducing disease levels >80% in protected animals. The identified waterbuck repellent compounds comprising of geranylacetone, pentanoic acid, guaiacol and δ-octalactone (patent application) were dispensed on cattle (hosts) using innovative repellent dispensers that individual cattle wear encircling their necks. not fed upon, related to cattle, the waterbuck ( Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa) which are common in tsetse habitats for their efficacy to protect cattle from tsetse flies that transmit nagana to cattle in Africa. We investigated the potential of non-host odors from un-preferred animals, i.e. Improved food security and household income from very high acceptance of collars (99%) motivated the farmers to form a registered community based organization promoting collars for integrated tsetse control and their commercialization. ![]() Increase in traction power of protected animals reduced by 69.1% acres tilled by hand per household per ploughing season. Land under cultivation increased by 73.4%. ![]() Collars >60% reduced trypanocide use, 72.7% increase in ownership of oxen per household and enhanced traction power (protected animals ploughed 66% more land than unprotected). Protected cattle were healthier, showed significantly reduced disease levels, higher packed cell volume and significantly increased weight. The collars provided substantial protection to livestock from trypanosome infection by reducing disease levels >80%. We tested protecting cattle, under natural tsetse challenge, from tsetse transmitted nagana in a large field trial comprising 1,100 cattle with repellent collars in Kenya for 24 months. To dispense the waterbuck repellents comprising guaiacol, geranylacetone, pentanoic acid and δ-octalactone, (patent application) we developed an innovative collar-mounted release system for individual cattle.
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