Originally published on cgiar.org by:International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on Jan 11, 2005

End of project regional review workshop held on 11 January 2005 in Wolkitie town, Ghibe, Southwest Ethiopia
A one-day end-of-project review of the DFID-funded joint ILRI-EARO workshop on "Improving food security through facilitation of community-based management of trypanotolerant cattle in the high disease challenge Ghibe Valley" was held on 11 January 2005 in Wolkitte town, Gurage, Southwest Ethiopia. The workshop also deliberated upon next steps of the activities initiated by the project. The workshop was attended by 27 participating and invited farmers, as well as 13 professional staff from local (woreda) and regional agricultural extension offices.

The major objective of the project was empowerment of local communities through improvement of their analytical, technical, managerial and organisational skills to select and sustainably utilize relatively trypanotolerant animals from their cattle herds as a strategy to sustainably manage their animal genetic resources. Trypanosomosis is the major animal health problem in large parts of Africa, like the Ghibe valley. One potentially cost-effective and sustainable alternative for the control of trypanosomosis is the exploitation of trypanotolerance, as exhibited by certain livestock breeds and populations that are indigenous to areas in which the disease is endemic. Such populations have the capacity to survive and produce under tsetse and trypanosomosis challenge, and respond better to trypanocidal drug treatments than susceptible animals. Such trypanotolerance has a genetic basis and is heritable, making it possible to improve herd trypanotolerance through breeding interventions. The project demonstrated the set up and management of such a participatory genetic intervention. A total of 65 cattle out of 1033 were tentatively selected to have better relative tolerance to the disease after 12 rounds of monthly monitoring of parasitaemia, PCV levels and trypanocidal drug treatments. The owners of these animals have confirmed that the selected animals indeed needed no or only very few trypanocidal treatments during the study period as well as the preceding years. The project provided specific training to a total of twenty five farmers owning these cattle on improved breeding and reproduction of their superior animals.

The workshop had separate group discussions for farmers and professionals on outcomes of the project as well as essential next steps of the activities initiated by the project. Both groups identified two complementary ways of verifying trypanotolerance in the selected animals: close on-station observations of sample animals for at least one year in the nearby Tolley research station in Ghibe, and further monitoring of disease development and animal response in the remaining animals and their close relatives under the management of their owners (on-farm). The research team (Workneh, Woudyalew and Adam from ILRI-Ethiopia and Sintayehu Abditcho from EARO) will seek further funding of these next steps.

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