Ecosmart Alternative Control Strategies againstTheileria annulataand its Tick Vectors
About the Project
Tropical theileriosis is a major tick-borne haemoparasitic disease of cattle and is caused by the protozoan parasite Theileria annulata. The disease is widespread across the Mediterranean basin, Asia Minor, and southern Asia with large cattle populations at risk. In North Africa, the disease has a devastating impact on small-holder farmers, which represent the majority of livestock owners. Recent reports from southern Europe show an increased risk of disease outbreaks in coming years, if the disease remains neglected. On a global basis, the economic impact of tick-borne diseases is immense and enhanced control measures would improve livestock production in many parts of the world.
Work Package Summary
WP1
- Organize and coordinate the project activities
- Review and assess the project results
- Review and assess the progress towards the objectives of the project
- To feed the output of the assessment into the project management
WP2
Epidemiology and parasite diversity
- Determine the prevalence of T. annulata and seasonal activity of ticks
- Reveal the current parasite population structure
- Determine country-specific risk factors and economic impact of tropical theileriosis
- Develop region-specific control measures
WP3
Eco-friendly remedies for tick control
- Reveal the current tick species and develop region/season specific tick control measures
- Establish in-vitro tick colonies
- Develop an alternative tick control program without any food safety concerns
- In vitro and in vivo assessment of the efficacy of non-residual, safe acaricidal compounds
WP4
Resistant/tolerant autochthonous cattle breeds
- Evaluate phenotypic traits such as clinical and subclinical infections in autochthonous cattle breeds
- Identify QTL regions and/or genes putatively associated with resistance to disease
- Check expression profiles of certain genes in monocyte-derived macrophages of resistant/tolerant and susceptible cattle breeds during T. annulata infection
WP5
Drug Resistance
- Assess the effectiveness of drug treatment against field parasite populations
- Detect and isolate resistant strains of T. annulata
- Determine the underlying reasons for possible drug resistance cases
WP6
Region-specific vaccine
- Isolate several different T. annulata field strains
- generate ongoing in vitro macroschizont infected cell lines
- In vitro attenuate T. annulata field strains by long term passaging
- Assess the attenuation of each region specific cell line vaccine candidate using attenuation markers
- Evaluate the protectiveness, effectiveness, safety and limitations of vaccine candidates by vaccination trials
- Develop efficient, region-specific live, attenuated vaccines
WP7
Transmission blocking candidates
- Assess the efficacy of identified transmission-blocking antigen candidates (TA17050, TA20855, TA03640 and TA10955) by inducing an immune response in calves using recombinant antigen candidates followed by challenging cattle with GUTS stabilate.
- Conduct an a new infection and transmission experiment in order to obtain infected ticks with higher level of parasitemia
- Perform a next-generation sequencing of mRNA profiles to identify transcriptional expression profiles of T.annulata genes within the infected tick
- Evaluate the efficacy of selected transmission-blocking antigens in the field
- This work package will be performed by participants 1 and 5. The efficacy of identified transmission-blocking antigen candidates antiges (TA17050, TA20855, TA03640 and TA10955) (Lempereur et al. 2017) will be assessed by inducing an immune response in calves using recombinant antigen candidates followed by challenging cattle with GUTS stabilate of T. annulata/Ankara by participant 1.
PARTNERS
