Livestock abortion surveillance in Tanzania reveals disease priorities and importance of timely collection of vaginal swab samples for attribution.

Lack of data on the aetiology of livestock diseases constrains effective interventions to improve livelihoods, food security and public health. Livestock abortion is an important disease syndrome affecting productivity and public health. Several pathogens are associated with livestock abortions but across Africa surveillance data rarely include information from abortions, little is known about aetiology and impacts, and data are not available to inform interventions.

Burden assessment of antimicrobial use and resistance in livestock in data-scarce contexts.

Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in livestock production are identified as drivers for antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To improve decision-making concerning livestock health, it is important to understand the impact of AMR in livestock and aquaculture, within and beyond farm level, as well as expenditure on antimicrobial use (AMU). Such understanding provides grounds for systematic disease prioritisation and establishes a baseline for understanding the value of different strategies to mitigate animal health problems and for the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of those strategies.

Modeling the effectiveness of targeting Rift Valley fever virus vaccination using imperfect network information.

Livestock movements contribute to the spread of several infectious diseases. Data on livestock movements can therefore be harnessed to guide policy on targeted interventions for controlling infectious livestock diseases, including Rift Valley fever (RVF)-a vaccine-preventable arboviral fever. Detailed livestock movement data are known to be useful for targeting control efforts including vaccination.

An outbreak of Rift Valley fever among peri-urban dairy cattle in northern Tanzania.

Background: Human and animal cases of Rift Valley fever (RVF) are typically only reported during large outbreaks. The occurrence of RVF cases that go undetected by national surveillance systems in the period between these outbreaks is considered likely. The last reported cases of RVF in Tanzania occurred during a large outbreak in 2007-2008.

Prospective cohort study reveals unexpected aetiologies of livestock abortion in northern Tanzania.

Livestock abortion is an important cause of productivity losses worldwide and many infectious causes of abortion are zoonotic pathogens that impact on human health. Little is known about the relative importance of infectious causes of livestock abortion in Africa, including in subsistence farming communities that are critically dependent on livestock for food, income, and wellbeing. We conducted a prospective cohort study of livestock abortion, supported by cross-sectional serosurveillance, to determine aetiologies of livestock abortions in livestock in Tanzania.

Analysing livestock network data for infectious disease control: an argument for routine data collection in emerging economies.

Livestock movements are an important mechanism of infectious disease transmission. Where these are well recorded, network analysis tools have been used to successfully identify system properties, highlight vulnerabilities to transmission, and inform targeted surveillance and control. Here we highlight the main uses of network properties in understanding livestock disease epidemiology and discuss statistical approaches to infer network characteristics from biased or fragmented datasets.

coenurosis in Tanzania: a major and under-recognised livestock disease problem in pastoral communities.

A neurological syndrome of small ruminants, known locally as '', has been reported among pastoralist livestock keepers in Tanzania. This study was carried out in four affected pastoral communities to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors, characterise the clinical signs and investigate the aetiology of the syndrome. Questionnaires were administered at all households (n=480) within four study villages.