Rapid Tick exposure Test for acaricide management (RaTexT)
The RaTexT project evaluates the diagnostic performance of a test to measure acaracide resistance of African livestock ticks, developed by TBD International, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The current laboratory test takes several months before livestock keepers can know if the ticks on their animals are resistant to any classes of acaracides. The project will also develop a mobile phone application which will help interpret the test results and give prescriptive advice about which acaracides to use. The project operates in Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Benin.
ILRI leads the gender and socioeconomic research component, which asks how can the test design, rollout, and associated mobile phone application be made as accessible as possible to diverse livestock keepers? We invited women and men from different ethnic groups (Benin), with different levels of literacy (Tanzania), who do or do not practice transhumance (Burkina Faso), and with large and small numbers of animals (Uganda) about their needs and preferences in tick control. These findings will be returned to the laboratory team and national partners to guide them in designing and introducing the test and mobile phone application to livestock keepers, veterinarians, and other stakeholders fighting to reduce the tick burden in Africa.
You can read more about RaTexT here.
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