Drought and the tick-born East Coast Fever kill about a million head of cattle a year in the region. The animals are the real wealth of many communities there. Yet, typically, an African farmer may lose as many as nine of every ten calves born.

A Moredun team, in partnership with GALVmed, the not-for-profit global alliance funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), is working on remedies.

Project leader, Dr Baptiste Dungu, says he has high hopes that a vaccine can be developed “at a reasonable cost”. With a sixth of the world’s population living on less than the equivalent of 50p a day, and four billion people subsisting on just £1 a day, he explains, a solution to cattle deaths is essential in Africa, and Asia and beyond.

And Scotland’s agricultural scientists have a huge contribution to make, adds Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, Moredun’s Chief Executive and Principal. "All the projections suggest the world needs 50% more food by 2050 to meet the demands of a population predicted to grow from six billion to nine billion.”

For further information, visit the GALVmed website.