UCD scientists work on genetic study to save African farmers’ jobs

SCIENTISTS in University College Dublin are playing a key role in a genetic study which could help save the livelihoods of millions of African farmers.

Professor David McHugh and his colleagues at UCD are part of a research group which has identified two genes that could help defend cattle against the tsetse fly-borne disease “nagana” which costs African farming up to €3.5bn annually. The genes may also shed some light on the human form “African sleeping sickness”. The African animal trypanosomiasis, commonly known locally as “nagana,” a Zulu word meaning “to be depressed,” is found in 36 sub-Saharan African nations and is caused by the trypanosome parasite which is transmitted by tsetse fly bites.

The World Health Organisation estimates 30,000 Africans a year get the human form of the sleeping sickness. The human and economic cost has drawn a huge international response.