Visiting scientists from the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute in Hamburg

Emmanuela Anandarajah and Dana Ditgen from the helminthiasis-immunology-lab of PD Dr. Norbert Brattig came to the Programme Onchocercoses laboratory in Ngaoundéré to focus on gastro-intestinal helminths of cattle. During their 5-weeks stay, they shall, in collaboration with the colleagues from IRAD-Wakwa, identify the variety of nematodes found in the gut of cattle in Nord-Cameroon, in particular with a view to the prevalence of such worms in our herd of 60 cattle, kept at the river Vina du Sud. The excretory-secretory products of such concomittant helminth infestations almost surely must affect the outcome of the various filarial infections (Onchocerca ochengi, O. gutturosa, O. armillata etc., that we observe building up in these study animals.