What is East Coast Fever?

Humans have an interesting pattern in information searching. Google nowadays publishes this in its report of the most searched phrases or words. I also occasionally discern this from the responses that I get from my readers. For the pattern normally revolves around the prevailing weather conditions tied to the availability of pasture and sometimes to what is reported in the mass media. Well, those who have sat in a communication class will tell you that human beings actively search for information to help in decision-making so as to maximize pleasure and avoid punishment.

Now, back to my case; in the past two weeks I have gotten about ten readers requesting information about East Coast Fever. I have always thought that this is a common cattle disease and thus most farmers must have heard about it, if not already know more information about it than I do. My mind quickly went back to an earlier miss reporting about this disease that was carried in a local daily. To the effect that someone had succumbed to it; when this disease is not zoonotic. I attributed this as the probable cause of the recent surge in the number of people that are asking me about this disease and with that I got an inkling to write about the cattle disease. Of course, most questions were around whether it is now affecting human beings.

What is ECF?

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ECF is caused by a protozoan and is endemic in East and Central Africa. It is spread by a tick but can also be spread mechanically through medical equipment like needles. Clinical signs of ECF include fever, difficulty breathing, diarrhoea, excess nasal discharge, lack of appetite, swollen lymph nodes, cloudiness of eyes and anaemia. The parasites can sometimes invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. These signs will be observed within one to two weeks after a bite from infected ticks.

How does ECF kill?

In Vet school, it was common for lecturers to pose the question of how this disease kills cattle. The answer was a bit perplexing and hence easy to remember that this disease drowns the animal, but on its own fluid - the animal drowns itself through the accumulation of fluids in the lungs hence "suffocating" the animal. This also gives the disease the characteristic of difficulty breathing and excess nasal discharge.

The devastating nature of this disease has served to stimulate lots of research on how to control this disease and today there is an effective vaccine against ECF. But the vaccine is not your normal type. It employs an Infection and Treatment Method and, therefore, requires a little bit of training of animal health professionals on its use.

What happens is that a healthy animal is inoculated with a variety of ECF-causing pathogens and then the animal is immediately treated in the processes conferring a lifelong immunity to the vaccinated cattle. This is the same way our traditional vaccines work to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies and hence protect against future infections.

Off course tick control is the other way of preventing ECF infections; this can be done through regular spraying of animals with acaricides. When diagnosed early enough ECF can be treated and if this is delayed the animal will die.

[Dr. Othieno is a veterinary surgeon and is currently the head of communications at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Kenya. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of FAO but his own]