Farm Animals

Cattle Tick-Borne Disease Prevention Africa

Tick-borne diseases including East Coast Fever, Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis cause enormous welfare suffering in African cattle, with integrated control programmes offering practical solutions.

Key Facts

East Coast Fever (Theileria parva) kills an estimated 1 million cattle annually in East Africa
Tick grading and strategic acaricide use reduces tick burden while preserving immunity
Infection and treatment (ITM) method provides immunity to ECF with controlled infection
Community-based tick control programmes reduce disease burden in smallholder systems
Climate change is expanding tick distribution and disease exposure to higher altitudes

Welfare Considerations

Tick-borne diseases cause agonising deaths for millions of cattle annually. Community-based control and vaccination programmes prevent suffering at scale in vulnerable smallholder communities.

What You Can Do

Support organisations delivering tick control to African smallholder farmers
Donate to ECF vaccination programme funding for subsistence farming communities
Advocate for international development funding addressing livestock disease welfare
Raise awareness of tick-borne disease as a major animal welfare burden in Africa