| The varied natural resources of Burkina Faso with the semi-arid Sahelian North and the sub-humid Sudanese South yielded a diverse local cattle population, with comparatively large and strong indigenous (Zebu) cattle in the North and physically very small taurine cattle in the South. African animal trypanosomosis (AAT), transmitted by tsetse flies, is endemic in the South and is the most important parasitic disease causing enormous losses to the cattle population.
This project aims to improve the genetic disposition for trypanotolerance of the local cattle population by development and utilization of cost-efficient devices indicating the genetic resistance of an animal to trypanosomosis, and to spread this resistance by the means of community based breeding programs (CBBP) conducted in rural villages. By phenotypic and genetic characterization of a large number of animals, the project will provide a revised inventory of taurine local cattle breeds to the government and to the global database of cattle breeds maintained by FAO.
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