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Nagana, also called nagana pest or Animal African Trypanosomiasis, is a disease of vertebrate animals. The disease is caused by trypanosomes
Trypanosoma

Trypanosoma are of the class kinetoplastida, a monophyletic group of unicellular parasite protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek language trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion....
 of several species in the genus Trypanosoma
Trypanosoma

Trypanosoma are of the class kinetoplastida, a monophyletic group of unicellular parasite protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek language trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion....
. The trypanosomes infect the blood of the vertebrate host, causing fever, weakness, and lethargy which lead to weight loss and anemia; in some animals the disease is fatal unless treated.






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Ndama
Nagana, also called nagana pest or Animal African Trypanosomiasis, is a disease of vertebrate animals. The disease is caused by trypanosomes
Trypanosoma

Trypanosoma are of the class kinetoplastida, a monophyletic group of unicellular parasite protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek language trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion....
 of several species in the genus Trypanosoma
Trypanosoma

Trypanosoma are of the class kinetoplastida, a monophyletic group of unicellular parasite protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek language trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion....
. The trypanosomes infect the blood of the vertebrate host, causing fever, weakness, and lethargy which lead to weight loss and anemia; in some animals the disease is fatal unless treated. The trypanosomes are transmitted by tsetse
Tsetse fly

Tsetse are large biting flies from Africa which live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals. Tsetse include all the species in the genus Glossina, which are generally placed in their own family, Glossinidae....
 flies.

An interesting feature is the remarkable resistance to nagana pathology shown by some breeds of cattle, notably the N'Dama
N'Dama

N'Dama are a breed of cattle from West Africa, of the Bos taurus-type. Other names for them include Boenca or Boyenca , Fouta Jallon, Fouta Longhorn, Fouta Malinke, Futa, Malinke, Mandingo , N'Dama Petite ....
 - a West African Bos taurus breed. This contrasts with the susceptibility shown by East African Bos indicus cattle such as the zebu
Zebu

Zebus , sometimes known as 'humped cattle' or 'indicus' cattle. They are a type of cattle better-adapted to tropics environments than the other domestic cattle, the Bos primigenius taurus or 'taurine' types....
. Most wild African animals are also resistant.

This disease is the animal counterpart of sleeping sickness
Sleeping sickness

Sleeping sickness or human African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic disease of people and animals, caused by protozoa of species Trypanosoma brucei and transmitted by the tsetse fly....
, also known as Human African Trypanosomiasis.

Nagana and history

The nagana pest disease has had a significant effect on African history, by keeping horse
Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s and camel
Camel

Camels are even-toed ungulates within the genus Camelus. The dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and is well known for its healthy low fat milk, and the Bactrian camel has two humps....
s (and thus cavalry
Cavalry

The Cavalry is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat, it represents the mobility and offensive power of the armed forces....
 and mounted knight
Knight

File:Gothic armor 2.jpgKnight is the term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. In the Commonwealth of Nations, knighthood is a non-heritable form of gentry....
s and mounted messengers) out of much of Africa. One main effect was in stopping the southward advance of Islam
Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
 at the northern limit of tsetse fly country. Another effect is that it is probable that the southward spread of the Bantu/Nguni
Nguni

Nguni languages are mostly spoken by Nguni people, which are group of clans and nations living in south-east Africa.The languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa including Zulu language, Xhosa language, Swati language, amaHlubi,Phuthi language and Ndebele language ....
 peoples had to wait until their cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
 evolved to become resistant to nagana.

Further reading