Are we prepared for emerging and re-emerging diseases? Experience and lessons from epidemics that occurred in Tanzania during the last five decades
This paper reviews preparedness for containing and controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases drawing lessons from disease events that occurred in animal and human populations in the last five decades (1961-2011). A comprehensive analysis based on retrieval and analysis of grey and published literature as well as reported cases was carried out to document type and […]
Herbivore population crashes and woodland structure in East Africa
Between 1985 and 1991, bush encroachment was serious in Lake Manyara National Park, northern Tanzania. Shrub cover increased by c. 20%. The increase was independent of initial (1985) shrub cover. Since 1987 there has been a steep decline in the number of African elephant in the Park due to poaching. Elephant density decreased from about […]
An outbreak of anthrax in endangered Rothschild’s giraffes in Mwea National Reserve, Kenya
An anthrax outbreak occurred at the Mwea National Reserve between May 2011 and July 2011. This outbreak affected endangered Rothschild’s giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis ssp. rothschildi). Eleven giraffe carcasses were found during the 3-month period. One lesser kudu (Ammelaphus imberbis), the only one of its species in the national reserve, also succumbed to the illness. An […]