Einsatz eines Geographischen Informationssystems zur Untersuchung der Verbreitung einer Rinderkrankheit in Afrika

Abstract. East Coast fever (ECF)kills hundreds of thousands of cattle in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa each year. To focus safe and cost-effective disease control programmes, the distribution of cattle and buffalo, the main hosts of the disease, as well as the present and potential distribution of the tick which carries ECF have to be considered. Maps of the relevant Parameters describing the present Situation of ECF were digitized by the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi in conjunction with the International Laboratory for Research On Animal Disease. Potentially suitable areas for the tick were determmed by interpolating and modeling data from meteorological stations – using altitude information to improve the results of the interpolation – and incorporating satellite derived Vegetation data. By comparing the map of potential areas with the present distribution of ECF, tick and host, critical regions may be identified, where the disease is not yet present, but into which it could spread.