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AbstractEast Coast fever (ECF), caused by a protozoon and transmitted by ticks, is the most critical cattle disease in Eastern and Southern Africa. Farmers have used the Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) to control ECF in Kenya since 2012. Yet, the differences in terms of perceptions and benefits accrued between men and women remain unclear. This study sought to understand how men and women perceive ITM effectiveness and to evaluate its impact on their livelihoods. The study included 29 gender-disaggregated focus group discussions with cattle keepers, the transcripts of which were subjected to systematic text analysis. This analysis indicates that women are highlighting the cost of the vaccine and inadequate awareness as the main obstacles to ITM adoption, while men describe the package size of 40 doses as the greatest constraint. Women benefit from increased milk sales resulting from growing herds and shifts to dairy breeds, but their workload increases with more animals to manage. Men benefit from additional cattle sales and extend their involvement in milking and controlling milk sales. The results demonstrate that vaccinating with ITM has the potential to transform the livelihoods of cattle keepers. However, appropriate gender-sensitive strategies should be put in place to enable both men and women to benefit from the vaccine while avoiding increases in women's workload and intra-household gender competition.

Tremendous progress has been made over the last ten years on East Coast fever (ECF) research. Publication of a reference genome sequence of Theileria parva, the causative agent of ECF, has led to a more thorough characterization of the genotypic and antigenic diversity of the pathogen. It also facilitated identification of antigens that are targets of bovine major histocompatibility complex class I restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs), induced by a live parasite-based infection and treatment method (ITM) vaccine. This has led to improved knowledge of epitope-specific T-cell responses to ITM that most likely contribute to the phenomenon of strain-specific immunity. The Muguga cocktail ITM vaccine, which provides broad-spectrum immunity to ECF is now a registered product in three countries in eastern Africa. Effort is directed at improving and scaling up the production process to make this vaccine more widely available on a commercial basis in the region. Meanwhile, research to develop a subunit vaccine based on parasite neutralizing antibodies and CTLs has been revived through convening of a research consortium to develop proof-of-concept for a next generation vaccine. Many new scientific and technical advances are facilitating this objective. Hence, the next decade promises even more progress toward an improved control of ECF.

The Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) of vaccination against the apicomplexan parasite Theileria parvahas been used since the early 1970s and is still the only commercially available vaccine to combat the fatal bovine disease, East Coast fever (ECF). The disease is tick-transmitted and results in annual economic losses of at least $300 million per year. While this vaccine technology has been available for over 40 years, few attempts have been made to standardize the production process and characterize the vaccine. The latest batch was produced in early 2008 at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The vaccine production involves the use of cattle free from parasites routinely monitored throughout the production process, and a pathogen-free tick colony. This paper describes the protocol used in the recent production, and the process improvements, including improved quality control tools, that had not been employed in previous ITM productions. The paper also describes the processes involved in determining the appropriate field dose, which involved a three-step in vivostudy with various dilutions of the vaccine stabilate. The vaccine was shown to be safe and viable after production, and a suitable field dose was identified as 1ml of a 1:100 dilution.