This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects
run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy
A safe, accurate and easy-to-use test is now available to screen for
trypanosomes. Spread by tsetse fly, these tiny parasitic organisms cause
serious diseases like nagana in cattle and sleeping sickness in people.
Previously, screening to prevent the spread of these diseases was slow
and inaccurate. Now, just one drop of blood is enough to provide the DNA
needed for analysis, and this can easily be attached to a
sample-collection card and posted to a laboratory for testing. The
system could have a major impact on livestock and on poor producers'
health and livelihoods, and is already being used in parts of Uganda,
Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. But, because most
people aren't aware of its benefits, this ready-to-use technique
urgently needs to be promoted.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description,
Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts on Poverty,
Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (11 pp.) taken from the CD.
AHP01, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 58.