Afrique OneNews

Afrique
One
A f r i q u e
Afrique One
News
O n e
1
N° 004, Special issue june 2012
N e w s l e t t e r
Postdoctoral
program in Africa :
a challenging experience
Prof Bassirou Bonfoh
Director Consortium
Afrique One
After a range of information (AO, N°1, 2, 3)
on diseases at human,
animal and environment
interface using the One
Health concept the new
orientation of Afrique
One Newsletter will be
the individual and capacity building aspects across
the consortium. We provide here a focus on Rift Valley Fever in Tanzania with a set of information on
the postdoctoral program as well as briefs on activities within institutions (training, exchange visits,
sabbatical, equipment, grants and publication…).
We also offer interviews to capture information from
the direct and indirect beneficiaries of Afrique One
program.
We are now at the 3rd year of the program and will
discipline ourselves to provide the outputs and outcome of such a challenging program. We will be balancing the research and capacity building aspects.
We aim, in the next series to bring aboard research
administrators and managers to give their view on
how we could all tackle the research culture issue and
African research competitiveness.
We plan to introduce a policy component to invite
and commit African decision makers in the research
agenda. Your inputs and advice are welcome to
improve the quality of our common newsletter. We
decided to go for the newsletter on line but copies
could be generated on request. The ongoing Afrique
One strategic (2013-2017) plan beyond this phase
will certainly provide us with new orientations.
Afrique One postdocs
NAME
Institution
Lydia Mosi
CSRS, Côte d’Ivoire
Esso Emmanuel
CSRS, Côte d’Ivoire
Karim Ouattara
CSRS, Côte d’Ivoire
Stephane Kouassi Kan
UAA, Côte d’Ivoire
Aurelie Cailleau
CSRS, Côte d’Ivoire
Alain Richi Kamga
EISMV, Senegal
Esther Ngadaya
NIMR, Ghana
Robert Fyumagwa
TAWIRI, Tanzania
Richard Ngandolo
LRZV, Tchad
Dolly Jackson-Sillah
NMIMR, Ghana
Chacha J.Mwita
UDSM, Tanzania
Lucas Matemba
SUA, Tanzania
Mangi Ezekiel
MUHAS, Tanzania
Alibu Pius
MU, Uganda
News
Training and capacity building: meeting
research fellows needs...................................2
Scientific Advisory Board................................2
Les visites d’échanges........................................3
Postdoc fellowship
as a model for
boosting research culture in African institutions................................................................4
Interview: Période sabbatique................5
Zoom on projects: Rift Valley Fever
Epidemics in Tanzania ......................................6
Interview with a Postdoc from UDSM.....8
Afrique One News and briefs on
member institutions.......................................9
Publications ............................................11
Member Institutions ...........................12
A
note on the consortium logo: We likened our efforts to building
this consortium to that of
building a house. Understanding of higher-level
population and ecosystem
processes rests hierarchically on sound understanding of simpler processes.
Vertically aligned sets of pillars, each representing
different zoonotic diseases, support these different
levels of our understanding of ecosystem health - the
same disease potentially contributing to understanding at different levels. Different colours represent
the contributions of different institutions to this
understanding, so some pillars are multi-coloured, and of course some pillars await construction.
Publication Director Contributors
Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh Dr. Karim Ouattara
Dr. Aurelie Cailleau
Editor-in-chief
M. Blé Y. Casimir
M. Boris Kouakou
M. Sylvain Koffi
M. Jean-Philippe Zeia
Co-editor
M. Zouh Bi Faustin
Dr. Karim Ouattara
Graphic Designer
M. Boris Kouakou
News
Training and capacity building:
meeting research fellows needs
During the recent quarter, the Postdoc Training Assistant (Dr Aurelie Cailleau) of Afrique One spent 3
months at Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques
en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS) to prepare and consolidate the
training program within the consortium. During her
stay, she performed several activities among which (i)
updating training needs and planning training activities according to Afrique One and its partners agenda
within East and West Africa (ii) Identifying potential
trainers and resource person to meet the needs identified (iii) Preparing training tools and material for
developed curricula (iv) Delivering targeted training
at CSRS and (v) Contributing actively to the design
and implementation of the complementary training
modules “welcome package”, for new researchers
enrolled in the institutions. This “welcome package”
composed of several modules (institutions rules and
career pathways, partnership and ethics, project
planning, research administration, grant and scientific writing, budget management, research methods,
communication with the public and the media…) will
be implemented across the consortia and offered to
the partners.
After 3 months, she was able to deliver 3 consecutive trainings on statistics using the software “R” for
researchers from CSRS, sattelites institutions and
the 3 universities of Côte d’Ivoire. She also delivered short modules on reference management with
“Zotero” software, collaborative tools such as doodle,
skype, Visioconference, Piratpad, Wiki, Mind mapping, Google group, Mailchimp, dropbox) and Basic
software tools such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint. She
was invited by the EU F7 consortium AvecNet to administer a training on statistics at University of Dar Es
Salaam (Tanzania) from 14 – 18 May 2012.
In total, more than 200 participants originating both
from Afrique One member institutions and partner
institutions could attend the trainings delivered by
Aurelie Cailleau. The next steps will be the training
of research adminsitrators (ex. Accountant) and the
Postdoc fellow on grant writing and communication
in research.
Figure 1: Training on R Statistic at CSRS
Scientific Advisory Board
One of the key objectives of Afrique One is to generate a critical mass of internationally-competitive
African scientists and research groups within leading
African universities and research institutions with a focus on diseases at human, animal and enviornement
interface. Such a commitment requires riguour and
very selective minds to avoid probable misleading
in conducting the initiative. This is why it has been
found necessary to establish within the consortium
a strategic scientific Advisory board (SAB). The SAB
regularly meets during Afrique One Management
Board to critical support the consortium. The SAB is
mainly composed of top researchers and experts as
listed below
2
Names
James Nokes
Perry Brian
Katinka de Balogh
Chris Dye
Hassan Mshinda
Fisseha Gabreab
David Ofori Adjei
Samba Sidibe
Institutions
KEMRI, Kilifi, Kenya
Consultant, Kenya
FAO, Rome, Italia
WHO,Geneva, Switzerland
COSTECH, Tanzania
University of Addis Abeba,
Ethiopia
Nogushi Memorial Institute
of Medical Research Ghana
CRSA, Bamako, Mali
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Les visites d’échanges :
apprendre des autres pour se perfectionner
Le consortium Afrique One a fait des échanges de
visite, l’une de ses priorités devant permettre un partage de connaissances, de savoir-faire et un apprentissage mutuel. A ce titre, plusieurs échanges ont eu
lieu durant le premier trimestre de l’année 2012 entre
quelques institutions membres d’Afrique One:
Des chercheurs de NMIMR d’Accra et de l’EISMV de
Dakar ont respectivement pris part à la formation qui
s’est tenue à Abidjan sur «biologie moléculaire – VNTR
par PCR des échantillons environnementaux » afin de
permettre un dagnostci des mycobactéries responsables de l’Ulcère de Buruli et se familiariser avec les
Mr Zouh bi Zahouli, Doctorant à l’UAA a effectué un outils statistiques appliquées avec le logicel « R »
stage de perfectionnement entre janvier-février 2012
au Laboratoire des protozoonoses de l’Ecole InterEtats des Sciences et Médecine Vétérinaires de Dakar
(Sénégal) pour apprendre des techniques de diagnostic, d’identification, de caractérisation des trois
protozoonoses (Toxoplasma gondii, Neospora caninum et Sarcocystis spp).
Mr Blé Yatana étudiant en Master 2 à l’Université
d’Abobo-adjamé a séjourné au Laboratoire de recherches vétérinaires et zootechniques de Farcha
(LRVZ) de février à mars 2012 en vue du renforcement
de capacités sur les techniques de diagnostic des
Mycobactéries sous la supervision du Dr NGandolo
Bongo Naré (Post Doc Afrique One, Tchad),
Photo1: Broyage d’échantillons, laboratoire de mycobactérie, Farcha.
Principal Investigator (PI) of Afrique One
NAMES
Bassirou Bonfoh
Agathe Fantodji-Togbe
Sayoki Mfinanga
Candida Moshiro
Serge Niangoran Bakou
Rudovick Reuben Kazwala
Kwasi Kennedy Addo
Colette Diguimbaye Djaibe
Enock Matovu
Julius Keyyu
Gamba Nkwengulila
Jakob Zinsstag
Esther Scheilling
Sven Gudmund Hinderaker
Sarah Cleaveland
Dan Haydon
INSTITUTION
CSRS, Côte d‘Ivoire
UAA, Côte d‘Ivoire
NIMR, Tanzania
MUHAS, Tanzania
EISMV, Senegal
SUA, Tanzania
NMIMR, Ghana
LRVZ, Tchad
MAKUN, Uganda
TAWIRI, Tanzania
UDSM, Tanzania
Swiss TPH Switzerland
Swiss TPH Switzerland
Univ. of Bergen, Norway
Univ. of Glasgow, UK
Univ. of Glasgow, UK
Postdoc fellowship as a model for boosting
research culture in African institutions
It was admitted the difficulty to ensure proper development without an efficient scientific research and technology. Unfortunately, African research institutions (universities and research institutions) are struggling to be
competitive at international level with their very poor
research environement. Several reasons are raised such
as lack of financial resources, adequate infrastructure,
but also motivated and committed researchers. Many
researchers are trained in Africa or abroad (Europe, America, Asia…) but they are weak in making of research, as
a key for Africa development. Our universities lack intermediate position from undergraduate to professor level.
Although Postdoc positions are promoted in developing
countries to fill the gap, such experience has not been
experienced in African institutions where the concept is
still new and hardly accepted. After a PhD, young scientist find difficult to build their carreer pathway when
research funds are lacking and supervision and mentorship not common. Most of them refuse to come back
or leave their universities for universities in developed
countries. Few networks support researchers with training and capacity building.
It is hard to get an African scientist, moving from graduate student to independent, internationally competitive researcher. This is why the consortium Afrique
One funded by the African Institution Initiative of the
Wellcome Trust, aim to support research environment
through strengthening research training and building
career pathways for a cadre of the best and brightest
African post-doctoral researchers working at human,
animal and environment interface. The development of
this group of health research leaders will result
in a critical mass of local research capacity and the development of vibrant,
self-funding research environments
in a range of African universities and
research institutes at different stages
of developing their research potential.
This capacity growth has facilitated a
network of equitable and enduring
South-South and North-South
partnerships. Afrique One expect at the end to allow scientists to develop independent
sustainable science programs.
The first step in Afrique One
experience was to introduce and raise the need of a
postdoc position in African
research institutions and universities. By doing so, the su-
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pervision and mentorship will allow their independence
and their good integration in universities and research
institution system. The second step consists in facilitating networking, since internationally competitive
research increasingly demands quantitative and interdisciplinary skills that are difficult to acquire without a
broad network of collaboration and are particularly lacking in the public and animal health domains. This demands effective partnerships, sharing of resources, such
as laboratory facilities and exchange programs among
African institutions, including particularly those divided
by regionalization and language barriers. Thirdly, Afrique
One aim to provide facilities such as equipment and infrastructure and career development opportunities for
these most promising young post-doctoral scientists to
become internationally competitive researchers in their
home countries. Then doing so will serve to limit ‘brain
drain’ of talent to countries with better resources but
also build a sustainable research strategy for the development of the continent in general and particularly population issues. Afrique One strategies are built around
the improvement of research environment in the universities with a comprehensive governance where Postdocs
are attracted, trained and retained.
Since 2009, Afrique One has recruited 14 Postdocs from
11 institutions within 6 countries. After 3 years, Afrique
one can be proud to have successfully introduced the
Postdoc program in the universities with significant
changes in terms of research management, ethic, grant
mobilization, publication and a range of network development. With the support of the PI and Northern partners, 50 peer-reviewed publications were generated, 17
international conferences attended, 32 grants applied
of which 17 obtained. 14 PhDs, 24 Masters and 11 technicians are under different research program within
Afrique One.
In Afrique One, a postdoc fellow is a young graduated PhD wanting to develop his/her career in research.
A strong selective process is performed and fellows
receive targeted trainings and a well funded 4 years
package (good salary, research seed funds, equipment, technician, scholarship for undergraduate….) to
(i) conduct research in their research field field, (ii) to
develop networks and partnerships, (iii) to develop a
research group in the institution, (iv) to attract grants,
(v) to publish and get known in research environment,
(vi) to conduct scientific animation and to (vii) be finally
confirmed in the institution or similar in Africa.
Dr Karim Ouattara,
Afrique One Assistant coordinator
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Interview
Période sabbatique : S'éloigner des tâches
quotidiennes pour préparer des projets innovants
« En systématisant et en élargissant le nombre de participants aux
périodes sabbatiques, l’on peut enrichir davantage les personnes
et les institutions avec des idées et des projets innovants»
Dr Daouda Dao
Afrique One (AO): Qui êtes vous?
Dr Dao Daouda (DD) : Je suis Dr Dao Daouda, économiste, chercheur au CSRS depuis 1996, enseignant à l’Université et depuis
2003 Directeur adjoint du CSRS et Directeur du Département
Valorisation Ressources et Application (DVRA).
AO : Votre travail consiste en quoi ?
DD : Nous avons fait le choix de travailler sur les questions de
sécurité alimentaire avec les cultures tropicales négligées. Pour
ce qui concerne la sécurité alimentaire, nous avons fait le choix
d’identifier des aspects très intéressants notamment les questions
d’Indications Géographiques (IG) des produits agro-pastoraux
qui sont des niches, des espaces d’expression d’un savoir faire qui
pourrait se perdre si rien n’est fait. De plus nous travaillons depuis
quelques mois sur de nou
AO: Dans le cadre des périodes sabbatiques initiées par Afrique
One, vous avez récemment effectué un séjour de 3 mois en
Suisse . Que vous inspire une telle activité ?
DD : Je trouve important de féliciter les initiateurs de ce programme Afrique One qui essaie de mettre l’accent sur les institutions au travers de ceux qui animent ces institutions. C’est donc
une activité extrêmement louable et qui permet aux chercheurs
de pouvoir se détacher de la gestion quotidienne portant sur
des thèmes assez anciens pour développer de nouvelles idées
et projets. C’est justement à la faveur de ce sabbatique que l’idée
de développer une approche IG, l’idée de pouvoir travailler sur la
formation à l’agriculture est apparue. Nous félicitons et encourageons les initiateurs à permettre à plus de personnes de pouvoir
bénéficier de cette opportunité.
AO: Qu’est ce qui va changer dans votre travail après la période
sabbatique ?
DD : De retour de la Suisse, nous avons organisé une journée d’information sur les IGs avec l’ensemble des institutions actives dans
la sécurité alimentaire. Un projet financé par l’Union Européenne
va démarrer afin d’entamer l’identification de tous les produits IG
en Afrique de l’Ouest en partenariat avec ORIGIN. Nous réfléchissons présentement sur une nouvelle dimension à la démarche
«connaissance et savoir-faire locale en agriculture durable ». A la
suite des analyses, la de question de la formation des agriculteurs
a été posée et est apparue essentielle. Lorsqu’on faisait le diagnostic, on arrive toujours au constat de l’insuffisance de financement et l’hétérogénéité du niveau technique en agriculture. L’on
se rend à l’évidence que la formation et le financement ne sont
possibles que lorsqu’il y existe un cadre bien défini, en d’autres
termes, un statut de l’agriculteur. Le statut ne peut être attaché
qu’à un corpus de connaissances admises dans l’environnement
agro-pastoral. Il faut faire du producteur un entrepreneur qui doit
avoir un minimum de connaissance et de droit.
Nous avons à cet effet élaboré un projet et nous essayons de trouver un financement pour expérimenter la formation des agriculteur-entrepreneurs avec un système de financement d’accompagnement et un statut reconnu.
AO : On sent dans vos propos la volonté du CSRS de conduire
toute la sous région sur le terrain des IG, est-ce cela ?
DD : Merci d’insister sur ce point. Nous nous définissons comme
un centre sous-regional, certes nous sommes basés en Côte
d’Ivoire mais notre intervention touche la région en incluant 3
pays notamment la Côte d’Ivoire, le Togo, le Burkina Faso et la
Guinée. Avec l’appui de la Fondation Inter-Jurassienne de Suisse,
nous sommes dans la création de partenariat notre région et Maghreb.
AO : Que vous inspire déjà les 3 années d’exécution d’Afrique
One ?
DD : Je pense une fois encore à l’idée des sabbatiques et pour
moi il est clair qu’en systématisant et en élargissant le nombre
de participants, on peut enrichir davantage les personnes, donc
les institutions. La 2ème chose que je peux mentionner c’est la
contribution d’Afrique One au renforcement de capacité à travers
l’organisation de cours de formation. Nous avons eu la chance,
sur la base des modules développés grâce à l’appui d’Afrique One
d’intervenir lors des Doctoriales avec l’AUF qui nous invite d’ailleurs à faire des propositions concrètes visant à enrichir les Doctoriales. La volonté d’atténuer les barrières linguistiques et géographiques entre l’Afrique Anglophone et l’Afrique Francophone.
Sur la base de ces 3 éléments, je vois que la démarche d’Afrique
One est novatrice, elle est originale et elle est du coup exigeante
parce que tout ce qui est original, spécifique devient tout de suite
difficile vu que chaque étape du processus doit être évaluée.
AO : Votre mot de fin
DD : C’est d’abord remercier les initiateurs d’Afrique One qui
ont vu qu’à travers les sabbatiques, des chercheurs peuvent se
démarquer des enseignements et de leurs taches quotidiennes
pour aller se frotter aux autres expériences. Ces séjours ont permis de développer de nouvelles idées de projet en partenariat
et de concevoir des stratégies pour les années à venir. Le sabbatique et les séries de formation améliorent l’environnement de la
recherche dans nos institutions et nous conseillons que les décideurs nationaux et régionaux puissent s’en inspirer une bonne
gouvernance de nos centres de recherches et universités.
Zoom on
projects
Rift Valley Fever Epidemics in Tanzania
What is Rift Valley fever?
Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is an acute, febrile vector-borne viral disease accompanied by abortion in livestock (cattle,
camel, goats and sheep) and a febrile illness that can be
associated with a severe fatal haemorrhagic syndrome in
humans. It is caused by an RNA virus a member of family
Bunyaviridae, genus Phlebovirus. RVF is a transboundary disease associated with periodic cycles of 4-15 years
mostly in Africa. Report from South Africa has revealed
that some of the infected African buffalo and Springbok in the outbreak of 2010 exhibited clinical symptoms
with noticeable mortality. RVF outbreaks are associated
with flooding from unusually high precipitations in many
flood-prone drylands and Aedes mosquito species are important epidemic vectors.
Who is at risk?
Because of poor living conditions and lack of knowledge
on the transmission mechanisms of RVF, nomadic pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are at high risk of contracting the disease during outbreaks. Many pastoralists in
Tanzania have a habit of eating dead animals regardless
of the cause of death. Therefore, RVF is a disease of the
poor people and majority of them live below the poverty
line. Contact with animal body fluids, sheltering livestock
inside the home, consumption of products from sick animals and to a lesser extent being a herdsperson are the
main risk factors associated with RVF infection.
RVF is also a professional hazard for health and livestock
workers because of poor biosafety measures in routine activities including lack of proper personal protective equipment. An outbreak of RVF in animals frequently manifests
itself as a wave of unexplained abortions among livestock
and may signal the start of an epidemic. Following periods
of high precipitation, shallow depressions in the ground
are filled with water, thus flood-water mosquito population flourish and the virus re-emerges.
Source of disease
Laboratory investigations employing molecular biology methods have identified 10 mosquito species including Aedes circumluteolus, A. ochraceus, A. pembaensis,
Anopheles squamosus, Culex paicilipes, Cx bitaeniorhynchus, Cx univittatus, Mansonia africana and M. uniformis as
important epidemic vectors of RVF in East Africa. Flooding
of mosquito habitats can introduce Rift Valley Fever Virus
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(RVFV) into domestic animal populations by production
of infected Aedes mosquitoes while epizootic/ epidemic
cycles are driven by the subsequent elevation of various
Culex mosquito populations, which serve as secondary
vectors if mosquito habitats remain flooded long enough.
Aedes mosquitoes are also capable of trans-ovarial transmission of the virus to offspring leading to synchronous
new generations of infected mosquitoes hatching from
eggs.
Why Tanzania?
In Tanzania, RVF was first reported in the 1930’s and since
then the disease has been reported at an interval of 10-20
years episodes. From the first RVF report Tanzania has experienced six episodes (1930’s, 1947, 1957, 1977, 1997 and
2007). The first five episodes were mild; however the 2007
episode was severe and widespread. The 2007 RVF epidemic started in Kenya in early 2006 and spread southward
among pastoral communities of northern Tanzania and
spread to 11 mainland regions (Arusha, Manyara, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Dodoma, Morogoro, Singida, Tabora, Mwanza,
Iringa & Mbeya). A total of 16,973 cattle, 20,193 goats and
12,124 sheep died of the disease. Abortions were also reported in 15,726 cattle, 19,199 goats and 11,085 sheep. In
addition 309 human cases were reported from 10 regions
of Tanzania with a total of 141 fatal human cases. About
186 human cases were confirmed by both Antigen ELISA
and PCR. All human cases were from north-central and
southern regions of the country with the first index cases
being from Monduli (Engaresero), Simanjiro and Mkinga
districts (Figure 1). The disease spread very rapidly among
pastoral communities due to traditional husbandry system that allow sharing shelter with livestock and lack of
knowledge on the mode of transmission of the infection.
Why RVF control failure?
Despite technological advancement and knowledge on
the epidemiology of RVF and presence of enough trained manpower, 50 years after independence Tanzania
like many at risk African countries is unable to control and
contain the disease at source in the event of an outbreak.
RVF is one of the diseases which affect mostly the pastoralits who are the poor and is also one of the neglected zoonoses. The episodic nature of the disease creates special
challenges for its mitigation and control and many of the
epidemics happen when the governments are not pre-
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pared and have limited resource to contain the disease at
source. On the other hand there has been laxity in taking
expert advice from professionals by policy makers especially on the proper control of livestock movement which
is the primary source of the disease epidemic to at risk
human population.
Afrique One consortium. From October 2010, TAWIRI under Afrique One consortium embarked on surveillance of
RVFV in Serengeti ecosystem including livestock (cattle,
sheep and goats), selected species of wildlife (buffalo, wildebeest, thomson gazelle, granti gazelle, topi, hartebeest
and impala) with objective of understanding the epidemiology and ecology of RVF in livestock-wildlife interface
in Tanzania for proper control strategy in order to reduce
risk of infection to susceptible animals and humans during
outbreaks. Through the program Afrique One will foster
the capacity of Tanzanian young researcher to apply the
One health concept at human, wildlife , domestic animal
and environment interface to better develop tools and
methods for sustainable control of RVF.
Way forward and strategies
For the first time since independence, three institutions
have embarked on detailed study on the epidemiology
RVFV and social studies on knowledge, attitude and practices among pastoral and agro-pastoral communities
with regard to prevention and control of RVF. The three
institutions include Muhimbili University of Health and
Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and TAWIRI. SUA is conducting research under Authors: Robert D. Fyumagwa (Afrique One Postdoc),
Southern Africa Centre for Infectious Diseases Surveillance Athanas Nyaki, Maulid L. Mdaki (Collaborators) &
(SACIDS) consortium, while MUHAS and TAWIRI are under Julius D. Keyyu (PI, Afrique One)
Figure 2: A MSc student
collecting blood samples
in maasai sheep (left), goat
(centre) and cattle (right)
for RVF surveillance
Figure 1: Districts with human cases of RVF during the 2007 outbreak in Tanzania
(Source: Mohammed et al. 2010)
Figure 3: TAWIRI postdoc fellow blind folding an immobilized buffalo (left) and darted grant gazelle, thomson
gazelle, and wildebeest for collection of blood samples for
RVF surveillance.
Interview
with a Postdoc from UDSM
Interview with Dr Mwita Chacha,
Afrique One Postdoc :
“It is a promissing consortium, which if well harnessed could
revolutionalise scientific research in Africa and further help in
capacity building in teaching and research institutions.”
Afrique One (AO): Who are you?
Dr Mwita Chacha (MC) : My name is Chacha J. Mwita,
PhD.
I am a Tanzanian and employee of Afrique One as
Postdoc fellow at the University of Dar Es salaam in
Tanzania.
AO : Tell us briefly about the theoretical framework
of your research.
MC : Much of the theoretical framework used to
develop this study was adopted from various references on the cysticercosis working group in Eastern
and Southern Africa (CWGESA). The motivation to be
involved in the study was brought about by the fact
that, pig farming is currently one of the major economic activities in rural areas. Unfortunately, Taenia
solium infection to pig if not controlled may hinder
the future growth of this industry and the public
health in the country. That’s why we complement
such framework with the One Health concept.
AO: What are your research plans?
MC: First my objective to accomplish the current
research on cysticercosis by contributing to the reduction of the disease burden through new tools
and methods. Such achievement is possible in a
good research environement promoted by Afrique
One within my institution. If the finals results will be
promising, then we wish to spear head dissemination of this work to the broader communities across
Tanzania and elsewhere. My original studies on fish
parasites and the quality of the same to consumers
are also ongoing.
AO : How do you see Afrique One for the next five
years?
MC : It is a promissing consortium, which if well
harnessed could revolutionalise scientific research
in African Universities and further help in capacity
building in teaching and research. The ongoing
development of Afrique One strategic plan beyond
this phase is an anticipation for capacity building
strenghtening and the development of good reAO: What audiences are you addressing?
MC: The target is agro-pastoral communities in rural search environement. We hope to be able to confirm
areas of Iringa and Manyara regions as far as econo- our position as promising scientist and to share the
my and public health are concerned. However, fin- knowledge with other institutions.
dings from this study could further be disseminated
broadly to the rest of the regions and even across
borders to neighbouring countries and West Africa.
8
9
Afrique One News
and briefs on member institutions
Partnerships and collaboration: sharing experiences
CSRS offered 3 training modules to the French
Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) respectively on (i) One health concept, (ii) communciation with media and the public (iii) statistics using
“R” software . The trainings were respectiveley delivered by Prof Bassirou Bonfoh (module i, ii) and Dr
Aurelie Cailleau (module iii). The 50 participants
visited CSRS on 12th April 2012 and CSRS ceased
that opportunity to organize an open day. AUF delegation therefore expressed the need to establish a
long term partnership in the field of capacity building at Postdoctoal level with Afrique One and CSRS
especially on the “Welcome package” modules.
Dr Karim Ouattara, Afrique One coordinator delivered a course on ethology at EISMV in Dakar (Senegal). Some Afrique One members (TAWIRI, UDSM,
MAKUN, UAA) also expressed the need to benefit
from ethology courses.
Afrique One/LRVZ supported a training for the Animal Health Division from LRVZ in the collection of
serum specimens required for serological diagnosis
(ELISA) of zoonotic diseases in the region of Lake
Chad.
A workshop was organized by UAA on the 22th February 2012, in collaboration with satellite institutions (LANADA and Institut Pasteur of Cocody) and
CSRS to assess the research progress of UAA PhD and
Master students. UAA visited CRA-Agonkanmey-INRAB) in Benin and CIRDES of Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) to develop joint projects.
Figure 1: Afrique One and his partners meeting all together during the
management board meeting in Dakar
Infrastructures and equipment: improving research environment
LRVZ received from Welcome trust fund reagents for topathology, moecular Biology and will be managed
TB molecular diagnostic activities. The acquisition by the trained staff within Afrique One.
was made possible with the support from the Swiss
Tropical and Public Health Institute.
MAKUN succeeded in obtaining different materials
in March 2012 such as plastic wares, liquid nitrogen
tank and microcentrifuges. Further, small changes
occurred in the Veterinary Parasitology lab - partitioning it off to install air conditioning that will provide
appropriate environment for proper execution of the
experiments.
UAA has provided a draft document for the creation
of the Laboratory of Applied Science in Animal and
Human Health including lab materials and equipments. The lab is meant to include 5 main components: parasitology, bacteriology, virology histo-cy-
Figure 1: Laboratory equipment (PCR) made available with Afrique
One financial support
Grants:
preparation and application are key for success
LRZV obtainned a training grant, COCHRAN, initiated by USA Agriculture Department – (USDA - FAS)
for 1 year.
EISMV, obtained a PhD grant from “Organization for
Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD)
post-graduate followship 2011”.
CSRS in collaboration with ILRI and other African
and Germany institutions obtained a second phase
of the project “Safe Food Fair Food” funded by GIZ/
BMZ for 3 years 2012-2014 (1,2 millions Euros).
CSRS and EISMV have successfully obtained small
grant (11’000 US Dollars) from the he PENAPH
Core Partners (UA-IBAR) to establish a West African
Network on Participatory Epidemiology.
In the quarter August - October, 2011, MAKUN submitted a preliminary grant application and was invited to submit a full application to The Wellcome
Trust H3Africa: TrypanoGEN: an integrated approach
to the identification of genetic determinants of susceptibility to trypanosomosis. A meting was held in
Kampala 8th-10th February to discuss the writing of
the proposal. The proposal was finally submitted in
March 2012.
In Proposal development, a proposal on status and
dynamics of biodiversity and community livelihoods
along the proposed northern Serengeti road which
has a component of communicable, non-communicable and zoonotic diseases and other animal
diseases was applied for the second phase and it
has been approved for funding in 2012. A proposal
on capacity building funded by NORHED is in preparation and seed money for a workshop has been
requested. Collaborators including Afrique one PI
and postdoc from TAWIRI will travel to Trodheim,
Norway at the end of August 2012 for a three days’
workshop to develop a full proposal.The Postdoc
managed to establish initial links with researchers
(Dr. Steve Kemp) at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya. Currently, through
this link PDF is preparing a concept note for grant
application to DAAD in order to support exchange
visit.
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Conferences and public events
Promotional activities were organised on One Health
concept at EISMV under AfriqueOne and OH-NEXTGEN
auspices. It took place in February from 16 to 18th
2012. Activities focused on (i) Postgraduate Education
on human and animal rabies in Senegal, (ii) a conference on «One Health» concept presented by Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh, Director of the consortium Afrique One
(CSRS).
Publications
List of last publications
CSRS
Dziedzom K. de Souza, Charles Quaye, Lydia
Mosi, Phyllis Addo, Daniel A. Boakye. A quick
and cost effective method for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection. BMC Infect Dis.
2012 Jan 18; 12 :8.
The NMIMR/ Afrique One team participated in the
Launch of World Tuberculosis Day in 2012 on the
theme “Call For World Free of TB, Stop TB in My Life
Time” at La Palm Royal Hotel, Accra, Ghana 23rd March
2012 – supported by Afrique One. they also participated in an International Seminar organized by the Japan
Anti-Tuberculosis Association (JATA) in collaboration
with National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP)
on the theme “Experience sharing on TB control activities: Lessons from community based TB/HIV activities
in Zambia and utilization of TB surveillance data into
TB control programme”, Angel Hill Hotel, East Legon,
Accra, Ghana 14th March 2012. The PI participated in
Technical Advisory Group and Core Team Meeting of
the TB Disease Prevalence Survey to review survey tools, forms and other documents at the NTP Conference
Room, Korle-Bu, and Accra, Ghana 7th – 9th March
2012 – supported by Afrique One.
Addo, K. K., Mensah, G. I., Nartey, N., Nipah,
G.K., Mensah, D., Aning, K. G, Smits, H.L.
(2011): Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP)
of herdsmen in Ghana with respect to milk-borne
zoonotic diseases and the safe handling of milk.
Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research 1
(10):1556-1562.
TAWIRI attended the Global Foot and Mouth Disease
Research Alliance (GFRA) workshop from 17 to 19 April
2012. The postdoc and PI from TAWIRI prepared a presentation on Surveillance of Foot and Mouth disease
(FMD) in wildlife in different ecosystems in Tanzania.
The theme of the workshop was “Surveillance, Epidemiology, Vaccination and Control of Foot-and-Mouth
Disease”. The workshop was hosted by the ARC-OVI in
Hazyview, South Africa.
Bonfoh, B.; Schelling, E.; Shüt, T.; Kasymbekov,
J.; Zinsstag, J. (2011) Integrated assessment of
Brucellosis prevalence and cost of disease in Kyrgyzstan. EcoHealth 7 (S1) [38], S58.
Afrique profoundly appreciates the initiative conducted by AU-IBAR at continental level to bring together
all consortia working on human and animal health issues. The Director of Afrique One has been contacted
by UA-IBAR to take an active part in the implementation of this network. Undoubtedly, such an initiative
will enhance the One Health concept and make it
effective. Contacts have been taken with UA-IBAR to
launch the rabies elimination program in NDjaména
(september 2012) and to share Afrique One experience
during the FAO Alive meeting in Nairobi.
Bonfoh, B.; Kéita, M.; Ould Taleb M.; Schelling, E. (2011) Nourriture: facteur d’adhésion des
patients tuberculeux au traitement. Evidence for
Policy Series, Regional edition West Africa, No. 1,
ed. Bassirou Bonfoh. Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: NCCR
North-South.
Bonfoh, B.; Kasymbekov, J.; Dürr, S.; Toktobaev,
N.; Doherr, M. G.; Schueth, T.; Zinsstag, J.; Schelling, E. (2011) Representative Seroprevalences of
Brucellosis in Humans and Livestock in Kyrgyzstan. EcoHealth [Published online 6th December
2011].
Dziedzom K. de Souza, Charles Quaye, Lydia Mosi,
Phyllis Addo, Daniel A. Boakye. A quick and cost
effective method for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection. BMC Infect Dis. 2012 Jan
18; 12 :8.
Mosi L, Mutoji NK, Basile FA, Donnell R, Jackson KL, Spangenberg T, Kishi Y, Ennis DG, Small
PL. Experimental infection of Medaka (Oryzias
latipes) with Mycobacterium ulcerans: A model
for transmission, pathogeneses and toxicity to fish.
Microbes Infect. 2012 Mar 14.
Mfinanga SGM, Sokoine K, Ngadaya E, Ezekiel L,
Mghamba J and Ramaiya K. (2012) Public health
concern along side with global initiative on the
priority action for “silent upring epidemic” on
Non-communicable Diseases in Tanzania (in review).
N° 001
Member
Institutions
N° 002
N° 003
Afrique One is financed by the
Contacts
Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS)
Address: 01 P.O Box 1303 Abidjan 01 Fax: (+225) 23 45 12 11
Tel: (+225) 23 47 27 90 / 92 Email: [email protected]
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Director : Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh
Deputy Director: Prof. Fantodji Agathe Tobgé
Deputy Director: Dr Sayoki Mfinanga
www.afriqueone.net