By Josphat Mulei Muema and Joy Wanja Muraya

Peter Kilerai has known no other life than on the family farm, where he herds 100 cows, including calves, 80 sheep, and 20 goats. As an 11-year-old boy, growing up on a farm and adopting a semi-pastoralist way of life, he has gained insight into the future of a livelihood that has defined his family for decades. In the wide-open eyes of the calves, Peter sees his future. Their birth, health, and increased productivity means it is assured.

"When I grow up, I would like to study at the University of Nairobi and become a computer scientist," says Peter, who is fascinated by phones and laptops.

However, his dream is linked to healthy livestock, which is threatened by a deadly cattle disease that could send his family into economic despair. The illness is known as Oltikana, or East Coast Fever, in the local Maa language.

No money. No food. No school fees. It's that simple.

Calves on the Kilerai farm in Narok County, Kenya. Photo: AHIL

East Coast Fever is a fatal cattle disease caused by a parasite transmitted by ticks when they take a blood meal from an animal. Approximately 75 million cattle are in East, Central, and Southern Africa, and about 40 million are at risk of East Coast fever (ECF).

ECF is estimated to be responsible for economic losses of over US$300 million per year and affects about 20 million smallholder livestock keepers in 12 countries where the disease occurs, posing a significant threat to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and pastoralists who depend on livestock for their sustenance.

ECF causes high mortality and morbidity in cattle, resulting in lowered household incomes, food insecurity, and increased risk of malnutrition, especially in young children and women.  

When his father was born in Longila village in Narok County four decades ago, grazing pastures were green, rich, and not demarcated. As a young herd boy then, for Kone Kilerai, herding their family livestock of 200 cows was a shared responsibility for both boys and girls.

Today, the fields are brown from the dry weather, livestock is driven further every day in search of grass and water, and the role of herding is now the reserve of young men who have completed school and taken up pastoralism as a way of life.

While he appreciates that progress has been made for children to attend school and have a broader career choice than farming, he is worried that ECF is killing more cattle today than ever before.

"I want my children to excel in school so that they can come and share solutions to improve farming and cattle diseases such as Oltikana that are killing our animals daily," adds Kilerai.

Kone Kilerai at his home in Narok County, Kenya. Photo by AHIL.

Kilerai, a father of eight, four girls and four boys, adds that livestock has served his family as a food and money source, which pays for his children's school fees.

However, the economic benefits are dwindling by the day. Kilerai is worried that the prevailing drought and animal diseases such as ECF have made keeping livestock a more burdensome than rewarding way of life.

Climate change impacts the availability of resources such as water and pastures, which leads to the migration of livestock and wildlife to new areas. Such migrations can contribute to the spread of ECF, as infected animals introduce the parasite to previously unaffected regions, influencing the dynamics of ECF transmission.

"When the young calves begin showing signs of illness such as enlarged lymph nodes around the neck area, difficulty in breathing, diarrhea, and poor feeding, I know that Oldigana is here," said Kilerai, describing East Coast Fever in their local dialect. The fever occurs a few days after the onset of symptoms, followed by diarrhea and mucous discharges from the eyes and nose.

Last year, Kilerai lost four calves and three cows to East Coast Fever. 

Kilerai with his calves at his home in Narok County in Kenya. Photo AHIL.

Improving control of East Coast fever can contribute to climate resilience among smallholder farmers and pastoralists. The Animal Health Innovation Lab is working on improving the control of ECF through research for technology development and testing for new, improved animal health interventions such as vaccines and diagnostic tests.

Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health Project Manager Dr. Josphat Muema notes that the death rate for untreated ECF can be as high as 100%, especially in non-endemic areas. According to Dr. Muema, besides Kenya, other countries in sub-Saharan Africa affected by ECF include Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan. Others are Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

For farmers like Kilerai, as a beneficiary of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health, the program has created awareness and enabled him to pick up early ECF symptoms before the disease progresses further, thereby saving the calves' lives.

"The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health is teaching farmers how to detect the clinical signs of ECF. These include the farmer looking out for enlarged lymph nodes, loss of appetite, labored breathing, nasal discharges, and diarrhea," said Dr. Muema.

Wyckliff Ng’etich, a Ph.D. student at the University of Nairobi Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health, takes measurements during the calf examination for ECF during a field visit.

AHIL Director Thumbi Mwangi notes that the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health (AHIL) further aims to address farmers' challenges of uptake of these innovations, and measures how these translate to better household incomes, consumption of nutritious animal-based proteins such as milk, meat, and eggs and reduces malnutrition among women and children.

"Through the training of the next generation of young researchers, including the fieldwork component, we are linking research to development and ensure that the final output will inform policy and development in Kenya that will see reduced illness and deaths of livestock from ECF and thus increased livestock productivity and health and happier families," said Prof Thumbi.

Controlling ECF helps maintain livestock health, preventing losses due to disease related deaths and reducing the economic impact on small holder farmers and pastoralists. Health livestock are more productive and can better withstand the effects of climate variability. Climate change often brings increased frequency and intensity of diseases. Controlling ECF reduces one of the climate-related stressors on livestock, making pastoralist communities more resilient to climate shocks.

Healthy livestock are more likely to meet market standards, facilitating access to markets and improving the economic conditions of pastoralists. This enhances their ability to invest in climate-resilient practices and technologies. Overall, AHIL work on ECF control contributes to the overall resilience of pastoralists communities and smallholder farmers by improving livestock health, diversifying livelihoods, ensuring food security, and reducing vulnerability to climate shocks.

For young Kilerai, the promise of a more efficient ECF vaccine means healthy calves and cows, and therefore more money to actualize his dream of becoming a computer scientist in the next decade and a half.

With ECF-free livestock, all dreams are valid.

About The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health (AHIL).

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health (AHIL) is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.

The vision of AHIL is to improve human nutrition, economic welfare, and resilience by removing constraints to cattle health and production in Kenya and the East Africa region.

The Washington State University leads the AHIL consortium with Kenya-based partners, including the University of Nairobi, the International Livestock Research Institute, and scientists from the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization.

AHIL research is focused on:

Development and improvement of vaccines and diagnostics for East Coast Fever – a fatal disease and major impediment for dairy and beef industries in east, central, and southern Africa;

Development of  a sustainable model for the production and scale-up of East Coast Fever vaccines, and improving their availability and accessibility to farmers;

Improving the adoption of animal health innovations and interventions, and the measurement of their effect on household economics, food consumption, and nutritional status of children and women; 

Strengthening the capacity for linked animal–human health research in the East Africa region through training the next generation of researchers at master's, Ph.D., and post-doctoral levels and developing research infrastructure for animal health.