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BackgroundThe endemic vector-borne diseases transmitted by tsetse and ticks impose heavy burdens on Africa’s livestock. Cattle offers the possibility of mitigating these losses at a cost affordable to livestock keepers, by applying deltamethrin just to the belly, legs and ears of cattle. Although studies have quantified the impacts of individual diseases on livestock productivity, little is known about the dual economic benefits of controlling both tsetse and ticks, nor about the number of cattle who need to be treated to confer these benefits. Alongside an epidemiological study in south-east Uganda, a farm level assessment was done to investigate the benefits and costs of spraying different proportions of the village cattle population using this restricted application protocol. MethodsA study comprising 1,902 semi-structured interviews was undertaken over a period of 18 months. Financial data on household income from and expenditure on cattle was collected and cost benefit analysis done, pre and post intervention and for different spraying regimes. The total cost of the intervention was obtained from the epidemiological study’s implementation costs and from expenses incurred by participating farmers enabling examination of benefit-cost ratios and incremental benefit-cost ratios for each treatment regime. ResultsThe benefit-cost analysis of spraying 25%, 50% and 75% of the cattle population yielded average benefit-cost ratios of 1.55, 3.85, 4.51 and 4.46. The incremental benefit-cost ratios from spraying each additional 25% of the cattle population were 11.38, 3.89 and 0.79 respectively, showing a very high return on investment for spraying 50% of the population, with returns reducing thereafter. ConclusionComparing the gross margins per bovine, the study found that increasing the proportion of cattle sprayed yielded increasing benefits to farmers, but that these benefits were subject to diminishing returns. From a practical viewpoint this study recommends spraying only draft cattle to control trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases in this area as they make 38.62% of the cattle population, approaching the 50% threshold. In areas with a lower proportion of draft males, farmers could be advised to also include cows.

Additional file 2: Figures S9–S17. Maps showing the vector control intervention in each year from 2012 to 2019 with cases overlain. The first figure shows just the baseline cases (2000–2020). Watersheds were derived from HydroSHEDS created from the NASA SRTM1 DEM using ESRI ArcGIS 10.5.

Additional file 1: Figures S1–S8. Maps showing the vector control intervention in each year from 2012 to 2019. Watersheds were derived from HydroSHEDS created from the NASA SRTM1 DEM using ESRI ArcGIS 10.5.

Brucellosis is a key zoonosis of major public health, animal welfare and economic significance, and is endemic in livestock in Uganda. A cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out to estimate the sero-prevalence of brucellosis and identify factors associated with sero-positivity in cattle in urban and peri-urban Gulu and Soroti towns of Northern and Eastern Uganda, respectively. A total of 1007 sera and data on biologically plausible risk factors from 166 herds and their spatial locations, were collected from cattle reared in urban and peri-urban Gulu and Soroti towns of Uganda. The sera were analyzed using indirect ELISA and sero-positive reactors confirmed by competitive ELISA. Multivariable models were used to investigate for risk factors. The overall animal-level and herd-level sero-prevalence was 7.5% (76/1007, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 6.15–9.4%) and 27.1% (45/166, 95% CI: 20.9–34.3%), respectively. Herd-level sero-prevalence was significantly (P

Brucellosis is a key zoonosis of major public health, animal welfare and economic significance, and is endemic in livestock in Uganda. A cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out to estimate the sero-prevalence of brucellosis and identify factors associated with sero-positivity in cattle in urban and pen-urban Gulu and Soroti towns of Northern and Eastern Uganda, respectively. A total of 1007 sera and data on biologically plausible risk factors from 166 herds and their spatial locations, were collected from cattle reared in urban and pen-urban Gulu and Soroti towns of Uganda. The sera were analyzed using indirect ELISA and sero-positive reactors confirmed by competitive ELISA. Multivariable models were used to investigate for risk factors. The overall animal-level and herd-level sero-prevalence was 7.5% (76/1007, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 6.15-9.4%) and 27.1% (45/166, 95% CI: 20.9-34.3%), respectively. Herd-level sero-prevalence was significantly (P

Background A retrospective case-control study was undertaken to examine the spatial risk factors for human brucellosis in Kampala, Uganda. Methods Information on age, sex and month of diagnosis was derived from records from plate agglutination tests undertaken at Mulago Hospital, Kampala. Information on Parishes (LC2s) where patients reside was sourced from the outpatient registration book. In-patient fracture cases were selected for use as controls using 1:1 matching based on the age, sex and month of diagnosis. The locations of cases and controls were obtained by calculating Cartesian coordinates of the centroids of Parish level (LC2) polygons and a spatial scan statistic was applied to test for disease clustering. Parishes were classified according to the level of urbanization as urban, peri-urban or rural. Results Significantly more females than males were found to show sero-positivity for brucellosis when compared with the sex ratio of total outpatients, in addition female brucellosis patients were found to be significantly older than the male patients. Spatial clustering of brucellosis cases was observed including around Mulago Hospital (radius = 6.8 km, p = 0.001). The influence of proximity to the hospital that was observed for brucellosis cases was not significantly different from that observed in the controls. The disease cluster was confounded by the different catchment areas between cases and controls. The level of urbanization was not associated with the incidence of brucellosis but living in a slum area was a significant risk factor among urban dwellers (odds ratio 1.97, 95% CI: 1.10-3.61). Conclusions Being female was observed to be a risk factor for brucellosis sero-positvity and among urban dwellers, living in slum areas was also a risk factor although the overall risk was not different among urban, peri-urban and rural areas of the Kampala economic zone.

African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic infection caused by a number of species of the genus Trypanosoma. The disease, in various forms, affects wildlife, livestock and humans and is transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly. There are two forms of human African trypanosomiasis, each caused by a different species of Trypanosoma; the acute form (rHAT) and the chronic form (gHAT). Overlap of the two forms would complicate treatment. Trypanosomiasis in cattle is known as African animal trypanosomiasis (AAT) and the effects of AAT cause significant economic damage as meat and milk production are reduced and cattle become too weak to pull ploughs. Cattle can also carry T. b. rhodesiense. Uganda is affected by both rHAT and gHAT but the diseases do not occur in the same area of the country however the distance between the rHAT and gHAT-areas has decreased in recent years. This study investigates the prevalence of AAT in northern Uganda and the ways in which farmers are attempting to control the disease in their cattle. Prevalence of AAT in the study district was found to be low, with only 2.61% cattle infected. Local breeds of cattle were to be less likely to be infected than European breeds. Farmers in the area are generally not treating their animals for AAT and are not spraying their cattle with insecticides that kill tsetse flies. The AAT situation in northern Uganda is currently stable but there are a number of current and future developments that threaten the status quo. Increased prevalence of AAT in cattle and overlap of areas affected by the two forms of HAT could have severe impacts on the economic security and health of the rural population of Uganda. Monitoring the evolving situation is of great importance.