Background: Animal African Trypanosomosis particularly affects cattle and dramatically impairs livestock development in sub-Saharan Africa. African Zebu (AFZ) or European taurine breeds usually die of the disease in the absence of treatment, whereas West African taurine breeds (AFT), considered trypanotolerant, are able to control the pathogenic effects of trypanosomosis. Up to now, only one AFT breed, the longhorn N'Dama (NDA), has been largely studied and is considered as the reference trypanotolerant breed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the adaptive response to environmental fluctuations represents a central issue in evolutionary biology. Population admixture between divergent ancestries has often been considered as an efficient short-term adaptation strategy. Cattle populations from the West African Bos taurus × Bos indicus hybrid zone represent a valuable resource to characterize the effect of such adaptive admixture at the genome level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: During the 2012 cholera outbreak in the Republic of Guinea, the Ministry of Health, supported by Médecins Sans Frontières - Operational Center Geneva, used the oral cholera vaccine Shanchol as a part of the emergency response. The rapid diagnostic test (RDT) Crystal VC, widely used during outbreaks, detects lipopolysaccharide antigens of Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139, both included in Shanchol. In the context of reactive use of a whole-cell cholera vaccine in a region where cholera cases have been reported, it is essential to know what proportion of vaccinated individuals would be reactive to the RDT and for how long after vaccination.
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