£1m funding to Stamp Out Sleeping Sickness
3 March 2010
The team behind Stamp out Sleeping Sickness - the RIU Best Bet based in Uganda - has secured funding for a major new partnership programme, applying and adapting what they have learnt to the control of animal trypanosomiasis on the Jos Plateau in Nigeria.
The Jos Plateau is home to around 1 million cattle. With the animal form of sleeping sickness recently returning to the area there are real challenges which the partners have to address.
A new funding programme, Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock for International Development (CIDLID), has awarded £1 million ($ 1.6 million) to the new partnership. RIUtv reporter Duncan Sones was on hand to film the launch event and interview the key partners.
For CIDLID, the UK Government's Department for International Development, the Scottish Government and the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) have jointly contributed to a £13 million ($20.1 million) fund to find ways in which science can make a difference to livestock production.
Sue Welburn of the University of Edinburgh said:
Partners to the project are the University of Edinburgh (International Development Centre) and the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research (NITR).
Contact
3 March 2010
The team behind Stamp out Sleeping Sickness - the RIU Best Bet based in Uganda - has secured funding for a major new partnership programme, applying and adapting what they have learnt to the control of animal trypanosomiasis on the Jos Plateau in Nigeria.
The Jos Plateau is home to around 1 million cattle. With the animal form of sleeping sickness recently returning to the area there are real challenges which the partners have to address.
A new funding programme, Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock for International Development (CIDLID), has awarded £1 million ($ 1.6 million) to the new partnership. RIUtv reporter Duncan Sones was on hand to film the launch event and interview the key partners.
For CIDLID, the UK Government's Department for International Development, the Scottish Government and the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) have jointly contributed to a £13 million ($20.1 million) fund to find ways in which science can make a difference to livestock production.
Sue Welburn of the University of Edinburgh said:
'I am convinced that the work we did with RIU as one of the exemplar Best Bets gave us the evidence we needed to show that this type of partnership worked - combining basic science, translational science and community medicine and health. We have also shown that we can build capacity in a real and sustainable way. Transformational changes to the training of vets in Uganda and the involvement of the private sector were key components of our work as an RIU Best Bet.'Tsetse-transmitted trypanosomiasis accounts for some 3 million cattle deaths annually in Africa and costs the continent an estimated $4-5 billion a year.
Partners to the project are the University of Edinburgh (International Development Centre) and the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research (NITR).
Contact
- Ayodele Majekodunmi
Centre for Infectious Diseases
The University of Edinburgh - Email
a.o.majekodunmi@sms.ed.ac.uk
| |
 |
