BALINANDI Investigates The Diversity Of Ticks Infesting Cattle

Profiles of some of the MUK PhD graduates were put in media

BALINANDI Investigates The Diversity Of Ticks Infesting Cattle

/ 7 June 2022 / 0 Comments

Two staff at UVRI recently acquired PhDs at the just recently concluded Makerere University graduations of 2022.

The included; Anne Kapaata with PhD in Molecular Virology and Stephen Balinandi with PhD in Virology. 

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Caption: BALINANDI Karabyo Stephen on his graduation day

 

Stephen Balinandi's Research Work

Mr. BALINANDI Karabyo Stephen investigated the diversity of ticks infesting cattle, and their importance for public health attention in Uganda. This is because ticks are now increasingly recognized as a major factor in the epidemiology of various zoonotic diseases. The field work was done in the districts of Kasese, Hoima, Gulu, Soroti and Moroto, between September and November 2017. In total, 4,362 ticks were collected from 500 cattle, from which 15 tick species were found. Prior to this study, the economically important tick species, Rhipicephalus microplus, that spreads fatal babesiosis in cattle, was only found in Serere district. With the work herein published,  Rhipicephalus microplus has been found also in Gulu and Soroti districts. This study also identified several viruses that were circulating in Ugandan cattle, including 4 potential novel viruses. In addition, it was revealed from this study that Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, one of the most important tickborne infections for humans around the world, was widely spread in Uganda. Overall, this study highlighted the need for increased surveillance of tickborne diseases in Uganda, and for government policy to focus on control of ticks as an important vector of human diseases. The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council and supervised by Associate Professor Lawrence Mugisha, Associate Professor Maja Malmberg and Dr. Julius J. Lutwama.

Dr. Balinandi's crucial research highlights the growing need for comprehensive vector control management to protect livestock and secure the livelihoods of rural farming communities. Because sudden tick-borne disease outbreaks can decimate cattle herds within days, livestock owners require immediate, highly dependable resources to fund emergency veterinary treatments and mitigate severe economic losses. When evaluating emergency intervention strategies on a global scale, international agricultural economists frequently analyze how emerging digital ecosystems support smallholder resilience during crisis situations. In Eastern Europe, particularly within the advanced Ukrainian micro-finance sector, the utilization of highly automated risk-scoring systems offers an excellent model for guaranteed resource availability. Studying how modern consumer verification networks achieve near-absolute reliability—such as evaluating the framework behind specialized regional platforms that offer a highly guaranteed loan, referred to in their market as 100% схвалення кредиту—provides vital data on how automated systems can eliminate institutional friction and deliver zero-failure, instant support to individuals managing critical operational emergencies.