Browsing by Author "Kindoro, Fatuma"

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Detection of carrier state and genetic diversity of Theileria parva in ECF-vaccinated and naturally exposed cattle in Tanzania
(Elsevier B.V., 2019-08) Magulu, Emelesiana Cyprian; Kindoro, Fatuma; Mwega, Elisa; Kimera, Sharadhuli; Shirima, Gabriel; Gwakisa, Paul
Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) has been practiced in Tanzania for over 20 years as a prevention measure against East Coast Fever disease. It is known that ITM, like natural ECF infection, leads to a carrier state, whereby vaccinated cattle become asymptomatic carriers of the parasite. It is expected that ECF vaccination using ITM also leads to generation of combinations of vaccine specific Theileria parva and local strains that circulate in the field what contributes to an unknown level of parasite diversity. Moreover, the long term impact of ITM on carrier state and parasite diversity in cattle are largely unknown. To address this question blood was collected from ECF-vaccinated (n = 239) and unvaccinated (n = 97) cattle from Loiborsoit, Emboreet, Esilalei, Manyara ranch and Mswakini villages in the Maasai steppe of northern Tanzania, as well as Mruazi and Leila farms in Tanga in eastern Tanzania. Screening for T. parva using nested PCR revealed an overall prevalence of T. parva to be 34.5%, with a significant higher prevalence among ECF-vaccinated cattle. Using three VNTR markers (ms2, ms5 and MS7) higher parasite genetic diversity in terms of higher number of alleles and expected heterozygosity was shown in vaccinated than unvaccinated cattle. These parameters were highest in cattle from Manyara ranch. Nevertheless, the principle component analysis (PCoA) showed no distinct clustering patterns as most T. parva alleles clustered together throughout the four quadrants implying parasite homogeneity among the sampled populations. However, some of the parasite alleles closely clustered with Muguga vaccine alleles in two of the quadrants, consistent with closer genetic relatedness between the vaccine strains and the T. parva populations from the Maasai steppe. Likewise analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed most of the genetic variation (93%) being contained within populations with only 7% being among populations. This study therefore confirms the role of ECF vaccination in enhancing carrier state and T. parva diversity in vaccinated cattle populations. Higher T. parva diversity may play an important role in carrier cattle by way of restricting breakthrough infections from field parasite strains.
Molecular species identification of bushmeat recovered from the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania.
(PLOS ONE, 2020-09-14) Schilling, Megan; Estes, Anna; Eblate, Ernest; Martin, Andimile; Rentsch, Dennis; Katani, Robab; Joseph, Asteria; Kindoro, Fatuma; Lyimo, Beatus; Radzio-Basu, Jessica; Cattadori, Isabella; Hudson, Peter; Kapur, Vivek; Gwakisa, Paul; Buza, Joram
Bushmeat harvesting and consumption represents a potential risk for the spillover of endemic zoonotic pathogens, yet remains a common practice in many parts of the world. Given that the harvesting and selling of bushmeat is illegal in Tanzania and other parts of Africa, the supply chain is informal and may include hunters, whole-sellers, retailers, and individual resellers who typically sell bushmeat in small pieces. These pieces are often further processed, obscuring species-identifying morphological characteristics, contributing to incomplete or mistaken knowledge of species of origin and potentially confounding assessments of pathogen spillover risk and bushmeat offtake. The current investigation sought to identify the species of origin and assess the concordance between seller-reported and laboratory-confirmed species of origin of bushmeat harvested from in and around the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. After obtaining necessary permits, the species of origin of a total of 151 bushmeat samples purchased from known intermediaries from 2016 to 2018 were characterized by PCR and sequence analysis of the cytochrome B (CytB) gene. Based on these sequence analyses, 30%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI: 24.4-38.6) of bushmeat samples were misidentified by sellers. Misreporting amongst the top five source species (wildebeest, buffalo, impala, zebra, and giraffe) ranged from 20% (CI: 11.4-33.2) for samples reported as wildebeest to 47% (CI: 22.2-72.7) for samples reported as zebra although there was no systematic bias in reporting. Our findings suggest that while misreporting errors are unlikely to confound wildlife offtake estimates for bushmeat consumption within the Serengeti ecosystem, the role of misreporting bias on the risk of spillover events of endemic zoonotic infections from bushmeat requires further investigation.