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23 May 2023 | Story Prof Felicity Burt | Photo Supplied
Prof Felicity Burt and Prof Ali Mirazimi
Prof Felicity Burt of the UFS and Prof Ali Mirazimi of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet have collaborated for many years on the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, and conceived the idea of hosting the first CCHFV Africa Conference, which allowed participants from low-resource countries in Africa to attend.
The University of the Free State (UFS), in partnership with Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, recently hosted the first CCHFV Africa Conference, at which experts from 16 countries – including 12 African countries – discussed Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV).

The conference was held in early May in Cape Town and included attendees from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, France, Gabon, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, and the United States. 

Keynote lectures were presented by experts in the field from South Africa, Sweden, the USA, and Turkey. Representatives of the USA’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the European Research Infrastructure on Highly Pathogenic Agents (ERINHA) also attended the meeting.

Prof Felicity Burt, an expert in arbovirology from the UFS’s Division of Virology in the Faculty of Health Sciences and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), organised the conference in partnership with Prof Ali Mirazimi of the Karolinska Institutet, the Public Health Agency of Sweden, and the National Veterinary Institute in Sweden. Profs Burt and Mirazimi have collaborated for many years on the CCHF virus and conceived the idea to host a conference which would allow participants from low-resource countries in Africa to attend.

First of its kind

Prof Burt said the CCHFV Africa 2023 Conference was the first of its kind, and aimed to create a platform for African researchers to showcase their research while establishing contact and collaboration with colleagues to further preparedness for CCHFV outbreaks in Africa. 

“We allowed for a total of 60 participants and were delighted with the enthusiastic response,” Prof Burt said. “We had a full house. The meeting would not have been possible without the support of the DTRA, who partnered with the UFS in supporting CCHF research and bio-surveillance efforts in South Africa, the region, and the African continent.”

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus is a tick-borne zoonosis (disease which can be transmitted from animal to human) found in Africa, Asia, eastern and southern Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East. The virus is listed as one of the priority pathogens for research and vaccine development by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to significant public health implications and the absence of effective treatment. 

“The distribution of CCHFV correlates with that of the primary vector of the virus, ticks belonging to the genus Hyalomma,” Prof Burt added. “The distribution of these ticks has, in recent years, expanded to regions where conditions are favourable for the species to establish endemnicity. Hence there is growing concern that this virus has the potential to emerge and spread to new geographic regions.”

Cases detected annually in South Africa

Humans become infected with CCHFV via tick bites or from contact with infected blood or other livestock or human tissue. Human infection is usually characterised by febrile (high-fever) illness, which can progress to a haemorrhagic state with a fatal outcome. 

Cases of CCHFV are detected annually in South Africa, with a fatality rate of approximately 24%. Although the number of cases that occur in South Africa is low, CCHFV infections are a significant public health concern due to the lack of specific treatment and risk to healthcare workers. Currently there is limited data available regarding the distribution and occurrence of cases in many other countries in Africa where the vector is known to occur. 

Oral presentations from conference participants provided substantial evidence of the virus circulating in multiple countries, with potential to cause human infections.

“The presence of this virus emphasises the urgent need to build diagnostic and surveillance capacity for CCHFV and other arboviral disease with potential to cause outbreaks throughout Africa,” Prof Burt said. 

News Archive

Researchers international leaders in satellite tracking in the wildlife environment
2015-05-29

 

Ground-breaking research has attracted international media attention to Francois Deacon, lecturer and researcher in the Department Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences at the UFS, and Prof Nico Smit, from the same department. They are the first researchers in the world to equip giraffes with GPS collars, and to conduct research on this initiative. Recently, they have been joined by Hennie Butler from the Department of Zoology as well as Free State Nature Conservation to further this research.

“Satellite tracking is proving to be extremely valuable in the wildlife environment. The unit is based on a mobile global two-way communication platform, utilising two-way data satellite communication, complete with GPS systems.

“It allows us to track animals day and night, while we monitor their movements remotely from the computer. These systems make possible the efficient control and monitoring of wildlife in all weather conditions and in near-to-real time. We can even communicate with the animals, calling up their positions or changing the tracking schedules.

“The satellite collar allows us to use the extremely accurate data to conduct research with the best technology available. The volume of data received allows us to publish the data in scientific journals and research-related articles.  

“Scientific institutions and the public sector have both shown great interest in satellite tracking, which opens up new ground for scientific research for this university. Data management can be done, using Africa Wildlife Tracking (AWT) equipment where we can access our data personally, store it, and make visual presentations. The AWT system and software architecture provide the researcher with asset tracking, GPS location reports, geo-fencing, highly-detailed custom mapping, history reports and playback, polling on demand, history plotting on maps, and a range of reporting types and functions,” Francois said.

Data can be analysed to determine home range, dispersal, or habitat preference for any specific species.

Francois has been involved in multiple research projects over the last 12 years on wildlife species and domesticated animals, including the collaring of species such as Black-backed Jackal, Caracal, African Wild Dog, Hyena, Lion, Cheetah, Cattle, Kudu, Giraffe, and Black Rhino: “Giraffe definitely being the most challenging of all,” he said.

In 2010, he started working on his PhD, entitled The spatial ecology, habitat preferences and diet selection of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) in the Kalahari region of South Africa.

 

Since then, his work has resulted not only in more research work (supervising four Masters students) but also in a number of national and international projects. These include work in the:

  • Kalahari region (e.g. Khamab Nature Reserve and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park)
  • Kuruman region (Collared 18 cattle to identify spatial patterns in relation to the qualities of vegetation and soil-types available. This project took place in collaboration with Born University in Germany)
  • Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate and Kolomella Iron Ore – ecological monitoring
  • A number of Free State nature reserves (e.g. Distribution of herbivores (kudu and giraffe) and predators (camera traps)

Francois is also involved with species breeding programmes and management (giraffe, buffalo, sable, roan, and rhino) in Korrannaberg, Rustenburg, Hertzogville, Douglas, and Bethlehem as well as animal and ecological monitoring in Kolomella and Beesthoek iron ore.

Besides the collaring of giraffes, Francois and his colleagues are involved in national projects, where they collect milk from lactating giraffes and DNA material, blood samples, and ecto/endo parasites from giraffes in Southern Africa.

With international projects, Francois is working to collect DNA material for the classification of the nine sub-species of giraffe in Africa. He is also involved in projects focusing on the spatial ecology and adaptation of giraffe in Uganda (Murchison Falls), and to save the last 30 giraffe in the DRC- Garamba National Park.

This project has attracted a good deal of international interest. In June 2014, a US film crew (freelancing for Discovery Channel) filmed a documentary on Francois’ research (trailer of documentary). Early in 2015, a second crew, filming for National Geographic, also visited Francois to document his work.

 

More information about Francois’ work is available at the GCF website. 

Read Francois Deacon's PhD abstract

Direct enquiries to news@ufs.ac.za.

 

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