Human, Cattle and African Buffalo (Syncerus Caffer) Interface in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Laikipia County, Kenya

Abstract

Many studies have been done on Theileria and Babesia in livestock, wildlife and humans as separate hosts. However, there is very little information on the genetic diversity of these haemoprotozoa in an ecological system where humans, cattle and African buffalos interact. In addition, few studies have investigated the level of awareness and practices associated with human tick-borne diseases among people who live in tick infested environment. The main objective of this study was to determine the level of awareness and practices on prevention of human tick borne diseases and genetic diversity of Theileria and Babesia infections in the human, cattle and African buffalos interface in the fenced Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the community adjacent to the Conservancy in Laikipia County. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to evaluate awareness and practices from 307 respondents from the community and the Conservancy. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 23 and the test statistics utilized were Chi-square and linear logistic regression. The results showed that the majority of the respondents (44.3%) belonged to (18 - 30 years) age group. A proportion of the respondents (99.7%) positively identified a tick while 97.4% were aware that ticks spread diseases to animals; however, the number drastically decreased when asked if ticks spread diseases to humans at 67.7%. Many of the respondents (46.9%) mentioned tick fever as one of the human tick borne diseases. The most common symptom respondents associated with tick bites in humans was skin rashes at 71.7% followed by malaise (43.0%) and muscle pain at 36.2%. Significant factors associated with awareness were level of education (β 0.216, t = 3.624, p < 0.001) and gender (β -0.148, t = -2.308, p = 0.022), while the significant factor associated with uptake of prevention practices against tick bites was occupation (β -0.147, t = -2.117, p = 0.035). Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was used to carry out molecular analysis targeting the hypervariable region of the 18S rRNA gene of the piroplasms, Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis (MEGA) version 7 software was used to analyse the sequences obtained and finally phylogenetic analysis was done using Multiple Sequence Comparison by Log Expectation (MUSCLE) version 7 from 70 samples from humans, 98 from cattle and 92 from African buffalo. Out of 70 human samples analysed, none were positive for piroplasms. In cattle 45 (45.9%) were positive for piroplasms while 87 (94.6%) of the African buffalos were positive. The predominant piroplasm in cattle was Babesia bigemina (22.2%). There was a high degree of diversity within the Theileria species with the predominant species being T. sp. ex. Syncerus caffer (73.6%) in the buffalos followed by T. parva. In summary, there were no Theileria or Babesia infections in humans but, higher levels of education, gender and occupation shaped the community awareness about ticks and tick borne diseases and drove specific practices of prevention to tick bites and tick borne diseases. The study recommends a public health awareness campaign on human tick borne diseases and tick bite prevention practices.