 Vast areas across Africa's humid and subhumid regions are home to the SESI fly, a small but deadly killer. This fly transmits human sleeping sickness and livestock trypanosomiasis, two of Africa's most devastating diseases that every year cause chronic illness, often leading to death for thousands of people and millions of livestock. Mr. Salah, the boss Salah, Mr. Sago Salah, the leader of the SESI fly, he's the one that's keeping the animals safe from the wild. He's the one that's keeping the animals safe from the wild. When we were in the village, we were always on the same boat, we were always on both sides, and we were all on the same boat, we were all on the same boat, We've been doing it here, we have been doing it here. We've been doing it here. We've been doing it here. We've been doing it here, we've been doing it here. Lifestock trypanosomiasis harms rural family incomes and nutrition as well as Africa's economic development as a whole. Because of it, many farmers cannot keep cattle or make use of agricultural advances that have dramatically raised farm efficiency and incomes in most other regions of the world. Sets of flies are only found in sub-Saharan Africa. There is no vaccine to prevent any mantra panosomiasis. So we rely only on drugs. The problem is current drugs were created more than 100 years ago and that has led to the generation of many resistant parasites. So any mantra panosomiasis really affects the economy of sub-Saharan countries that are depending on cattle for agricultural reasons or even meat and milk consumption. We don't have a real estimate because part of the problem is the lack of surveillance and the real statistics, but the figures are around 1 to 2 billion US dollars per year. In spite of more than 100 years of concerted efforts, international researchers still struggle to bring down the numbers of sick and infected animals. In 2010, the International Lifestock Research Institute, ILRI, gathered a group of international and Kenyan partners to start a research project in a different direction. Armed with state-of-the-art genetic technologies, they aimed to produce the first-ever transgenic disease-resistant cattle for Africa. We are attempting to use transgenic methods to introduce resistance to panosomiasis. Initially, we're working with the Buran breed. The Buran is a well-adapted, highly productive animal that unfortunately is extremely susceptible to panosomiasis. We could in principle use conventional breeding methods to introduce tolerance to panosomiasis from naturally occurring tolerant breeds. The problem with that is tolerance means that the cattle continue to harbour panosomes and are potentially infective for humans and other cattle. In addition, conventional breeding is very slow and expensive and would have to be repeated for every breed separately. Panosomiasis is caused by panosome parasites that cesiflice transmit as they feed on the blood of an animal. Researchers have long known that a few African wildlife species, including baboons, are resistant to the disease because of a natural, genetically controlled ability to kill cesit-transmitted parasites in their bloodstream. Uniquely, the Hammadryse baboon has the ability to kill all forms of panosome parasites infecting them, including those that cause disease in both people and livestock. By identifying and transferring to mice a copy of the gene sequence that gives Hammadryse baboon's protection against the disease, project partners in New York have already shown that it is possible to pass on the protection to mice. Now, UK-based partners are working to demonstrate that the same protection is possible for sheep. Once perfected, these genetic tools will be ready for application to cattle, starting with East Africa's hardy and popular boran breed. So we're contributing two pieces of our technology to the project. The first is the creation of the piece of DNA that has the correct sequence from the baboon and is designed to go into a specific part of the cow DNA. The second contribution is we'll use our robotic technology to screen lots of different cells to find the one cell where the DNA has gone into the correct spot. So it's a great quality control step that will be used to select the cell before the transgenic cow is made. When the cell line has been produced by collaborators in the USA and UK and tested to confirm that the gene is in the right place, the Illry team will attempt to use it to make a disease-resistant boran calf. As they wait for the cell line to be developed, the Illry team has been adapting cloning techniques and successfully produced a cloned boran calf. Project partners at Michigan State University in the USA have at the same time cloned two Jersey cows. Over the next two years, using the new cell lines, the teams will then produce disease-resistant clones. The models that we are using in Africa to make the genetic modification in the cattle are the same modifications that we will be using in transgenic cattle in America. In America, the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture strictly regulates all transgenic farmstock. This would be the first time that transgenic cattle had been used in Africa. We hope to end up with a locally adapted breed of cattle that has all of the characteristics that have been bred into it over generations. We'll simply add on top of that resistance to trypanosomiasis. Introducing trypanosomiasis resistance should reduce the cost of farmers by removing the need for treatment and insect control. It may take researchers another 20 years to breed, test and multiply disease-resistant herds so that they are available for sale to farms. All decisions and regulations about using these transgenic animals will rest with national African governments. If successful with Boran cattle, the same techniques will then be available to transfer resistance to trypanosomiasis to other African cattle breeds. Farmers will then be able to choose to use cement from disease-resistant bolts for artificial insemination of their cows. Though the ILRI project is first to adapt these cost-effective genetic tools to tackle African livestock diseases, similar genetic technologies are currently being developed worldwide to address a range of crop, animal and human-related health problems. Huge challenges such as those posed by trypanosomiasis encourage new ways of working. The ILRI project team is an example. It is a global partnership of medical and veterinary scientists employing cost-effective new scientific methods in relevant and appropriate ways to tackle a major disease. It's always been a key target for the research community to go after disease resistance. It's only in the last couple of years that we really have the tools to do something about it. The current projects like the trip cattle, for example, are really exciting. With the new technologies, we can start to really address disease resistance. Cattle herds developed from local breeds and made resistant to all diseases caused by trypanosomes should increase animal productivity and save animal lives. They should also reduce pollution and health hazards due to regular cattle treatments with insecticides. Use of cattle finally free of this disease burden could allow African agriculture to flourish where it never has before. Reducing poverty and hunger and enhancing human well-being across the continent.