Differences between immune responses directed against Theileria parva and less pathogenic Theileria in buffaloes and acute cases of East coast fever in calves at the livestock wildlife interface

Tanzania has the third largest livestock population on the African continent, comprising among others 25 million cattle. In Tanzania, livestock particularly cattle is the sole source of livelihood, food (meat and milk) and income (money) for pastoralist and agro-pastoralists communities. At the wildlife livestock interface, tick borne related diseases, particularly East Coast Fever (ECF) caused by Theileria parva is the main cause of reported livestock deaths. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in northern Tanzania is a multiple land use area that was established in 1959 to reconcile the interests of natural resource conservation and human development. NCA presents many years of parasite evolution in a complex interaction of livestock and wildlife species. The causative agent of ECF in this zone of constant interaction of wild and domestic animals involves a diversity of polymorphic Theileria species whose specific roles in the ECF disease is not well understood. The only available method of controlling ECF consists of the infection and treatment method (ITM). During ITM the cattle is inoculated with pathogenic sporozoites of T. parva stabilates and treated simultaneously with long acting form of oxytetracycline. It is assumed that oxytetracycline mode of action (also assumed to be the way LPT will function in this study) in ECF immunization is to inhibit sporozoites binding to lymphocytes and also down regulates pro-inflammatory cytokines. ITM is adopted by pastoral communities but has room for improvement. We hypothesis that continued interaction of livestock and multiple species of wildlife (passage of Theileria species in different hosts) in the same grazing land selects LPT of buffaloes that mounts protective immune response to early T. parva infection of cattle calves. We aim to detect and discriminate differences in immune response directed against Theileria species between buffaloes and acute cases of ECF in cattle at the livestock wildlife interface of NCA.