Machunde Andrew Bigambo

Machunde Andrew Bigambo was born in Mwanza on the southern shores of Lake Victoria (northwest Tanzania) in 1976. He is a Jita, a tribe known in Tanzania for its fishing traditions. He trained in accounting, English, computer programming, and data management in Mwanza. Before joining the Afya Serengeti project, he enrolled in a variety of jobs, including customer care, telecommunications, and sales.

Since 2003, he has been involved in many aspects of Afya Serengeti, including vaccination campaigns, household surveys, disease and population monitoring, and photography. He is currently the data and sample manager for the project.

Sarah Cleaveland

Sarah Cleaveland is a veterinary epidemiologist based at the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Over the last 13 years, her research work has been centered in northern Tanzania, focusing on the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the human-wildlife-domestic animal interface, including rabies, canine distemper, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and echinococcosis.

Rabies has been a principal interest for many years, triggered initially by concerns about disease threats to African wild dogs in the Serengeti, but now resulting in a wider involvement in rabies control throughout Africa and Asia. The complementary aims of several current research projects are to provide information necessary for the development of large-scale rabies control programs in sub-Saharan Africa that will provide benefits to public health, wildlife conservation, and animal welfare.

Meggan Craft

Meggan Craft calls herself primarily a lion researcher but also a budding disease ecologist. She was a pre-med student at Brown University, USA until a semester abroad in 1995 studying wildlife management in Kenya spurred new career aspirations.

A week after graduating from Brown with a biology degree in 1997, Meggan was back in Africa interning for the School for Field Studies. Two years later, Craig Packer hired Meggan as a field assistant for the Serengeti Lion Project in Tanzania. After a brief foray into the educational adventure tourism business in Tanzania, Meggan rejoined the lion project and subsequently entered the PhD program at the University of Minnesota, USA in 2003. She is advised by Craig Packer and is currently studying canine distemper virus (CDV) dynamics among Serengeti carnivores for her thesis.

Eblate Ernest

Eblate Ernest is a key member of the Afya Serengeti project. Eblate is in the Pare tribe that originates from the slopes of Kilimanjaro. He completed both his first degree in veterinary medicine and his Master’s degree at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.

After completing his Master’s, Eblate was a research assistant on a variety of wildlife and domestic animal disease projects before joining the Afya Serengeti project. A skilled field veterinarian, Eblate was primarily responsible for wildlife sampling for the project as well as playing an important role in an ongoing African Wild Dog project in the ecosystem. In 2007, Eblate was promoted to project manager, and in February 2008, he began a fellowship to study for his PhD in Norway.

Katie Hampson

Katie Hampson was born in Irby, near Liverpool, northwest England in 1978. Katie’s primary interests are in population dynamics and infectious disease ecology. Before starting her PhD, Katie obtained an Honors degree in biological sciences from Oxford University, UK, and carried out a variety of ecological and conservation work in the Philippines and Madagascar.

In 2007, Katie completed her PhD on the transmission dynamics of canine rabies from Princeton University, USA, under the supervision of Andy Dobson. The field research for Katie’s thesis was focused on contact tracing of rabies cases. The unique pathology of rabies provided a rare opportunity for her to study case-to-case transmission directly, and on a large scale. Katie has been using this comprehensive data to develop models of rabies transmission and control. She is currently funded by the Wellcome Trust on a 4-year post-doctoral fellowship program supporting research on infectious disease dynamics, which will enable her to continue to carry out basic research on rabies epidemiology and control.

Tiziana Lembo

Tiziana Lembo was born in Padua (near Venice in northern Italy) in 1974. After undertaking classical studies at the Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi, Bergamo, Italy, and training in veterinary medicine at the University of Milan, Italy, she enrolled in a Master’s course in international animal health at the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where she also completed her PhD on the epidemiology of rabies and canine distemper in the Serengeti.

Tiziana joined the newly established Afya Serengeti project in 2002 while undertaking her postgraduate studies and has since contributed to all aspects of the project, including design and implementation of field studies, laboratory (molecular, serological, and diagnostic) analyses, data analysis, and project management.

She currently holds a research assistant position at the University of Glasgow, UK, on bovine tuberculosis in Tanzania and she continues to advise the Afya Serengeti project.

Iddi Lipende

Iddi Lipende joined the Afya Serengeti project in 2007. He is from Lindi in southern Tanzania and graduated from Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, with a degree in veterinary medicine. After a short period as a teacher, he was recruited back to Sokoine to conduct his Master’s thesis. In 2002, Iddi finished his research.

Iddi joined the Afya Serengeti project as the veterinarian in charge of the domestic canine and feline vaccination program. He is exceptionally talented at vaccinating unwilling dogs, a talent that has come in particularly useful on occasions in remote areas of Ngorongoro district, where house-to-house vaccinations are necessary.

Sambo Maganga

Sambo Maganga is one of the latest recruits to the Afya Serengeti team. A member of the Sukuma tribe, the largest tribe in Tanzania, Sambo originates from Shinyanga district. Sambo graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2007 with a degree in geography and environmental studies. He developed an interest in infectious diseases after taking a course in medical geography. While pursuing his degree, Sambo gained experience in research at Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre in the Morogoro Region, specifically as part of a UK-Tanzania student initiative.

Sambo has undergone training in rabies surveillance and control methods with the Afya Serengeti project and will be based in Ifakara for the remainder of 2008, carrying out contact tracing and developing a plan for mass domestic dog vaccination in the Kilombero and Ulanga districts.

Mathias Magoto

Mathias Magoto is originally from a small village in the Mara Highlands, Tarime District in northern Tanzania. He is a member of the Wakurya tribe. From the time he was a young boy, he remembers his close encounters with rhinos, leopards, and hippos while herding cattle. Mathias worked as a livestock field officer for the Ministry of Livestock Development for more than 30 years, based at different locations throughout the Mara Region before retiring in 2005. Since then, he has been employed full-time by Afya Serengeti tracing rabies cases that have occurred during the last 5 years.

Mathias typically travels on his motorcycle to visit and interview patients identified from hospital records and animal owners identified from livestock case reports. In addition to conducting interviews, he collects brain samples for laboratory diagnosis, provides rabies awareness information, and coordinates activities with local clinics and dispensaries, livestock field officers, and paravets.

Craig Packer

Craig Packer was born in Texas and received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, USA in 1972. While still at Stanford, Craig went to Tanzania to study baboons before attending the University of Sussex, UK to complete his PhD research on the Gombe baboons. After a study of Japanese macaques in Hakusan National Park, Craig returned to Tanzania in 1978 to head the Serengeti Lion Project. He subsequently held a post-doc at the University of Chicago, USA and joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota, USA in 1984, returning to the Serengeti for several months each year.

Craig received a J.S. Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990 and became a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in 1997. He is the author of Into Africa, which won the 1995 John Burroughs medal, and 83 scientific articles, 55 of which concern his research on lions.

Kaneja Rims

Kaneja Rims is from Mugumu in the Serengeti. He first gained experience with the Afya Serengeti project while he was still at secondary school by assisting Katie Hampson with spotting carnivores during night transects in the Serengeti District in 2004.

Since finishing school, Kaneja has been employed as a research assistant, conducting questionnaire surveys and dog vaccinations across Tanzania.

Kaneja was employed full-time on the Afya Serengeti project in 2007 and has continued to conduct a wide range of activities from serological sampling to data entry. He is also a very talented musician and has produced a popular music CD. On September 8, 2007, his group performed a concert for the inaugural World Rabies Day in the Bariadi District.

Israel Silaa

Israel Silaa is from the Chaga tribe, originating from Moshi, in the Kilimanjaro Region of northern Tanzania. He worked as a part-time driver for the Serengeti District Livestock Office for several years before being employed full-time on the Afya Serengeti project in 2006.

His considerable skills as a driver are crucial for the tough terrain that he covers during project work, whether traveling to sites for dog vaccination, tracing rabies cases, or sampling wildlife. In 2007, Israel was voted team member of the year by his colleagues for his dedication, endurance, and motivation.

Cleophas Simon

Cleophas Simon was born in 1979 and is a member of the Chaga tribe from Usser village in rural Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region. He trained in veterinary medicine at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania where he developed an interest in field-based research, especially in zoonoses and food-borne diseases.

He obtained his degree in 2007 and spent time in private practice prior to joining the Afya Serengeti project.

Cleophas is based in Mugumu in the Serengeti District, helping to conduct contact tracing studies and assisting with vaccinations both with the Afya Serengeti team in northern Tanzania and clinics in the Ulanga and Kilombero districts in southern Tanzania with Sambo Maganga.

Paulo Charles Tango

Paulo Charles Tango was born in rural Babati District in the Manyara Region in northern Tanzania in 1974. He is an Iraqw, a tribe known for its strong tradition. At the age of 12, he was put on a tractor and has since developed extensive mechanical skills.

He started working as a professional driver in 1995 for the Hanan’g wheat plantations, Babati, and subsequently the Serian Agricultural Research in Arusha. For a short period he worked in the famous tanzanite mines in the Simanjiro District. Since 1999, Paulo has been involved in a variety of animal health research projects such as bovine tuberculosis, rabies, and brucellosis projects in collaboration with the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.

In 2004, he joined the Serengeti Carnivore Disease Project and has participated in many activities such as vaccination campaigns, disease monitoring, and household surveys. Paulo is now chief driver and responsible for vehicle management.

Dominic Travis

Dominic Travis graduated with a BS in zoology from North Carolina State University, USA and received his DVM from the Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine, USA. He became interested in the ecology of foreign animal diseases and emerging zoonoses as an exchange student at the Veterinary Faculty, University of Zimbabwe, and at the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Onderstepoort, South Africa. This led to a post-DVM internship in the USDA Plum Island Animal Disease Center, where he studied foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.

In 2000, Dominic received his MS in epidemiology from the University of Maryland, USA while completing a residency in applied epidemiology at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, USA. Dominic joined Lincoln Park Zoo in 2000 as veterinary epidemiologist in the Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology and became its director in 2005.

Recently, his role has expanded to include the Department of Conservation and Science. He is now the senior director of conservation and science at the Lincoln Park Zoological Society in Chicago, Illinois.

For more information on the Lincoln Park Zoo, visit www.lpzoo.org/serengeti.

Magai Kaare

IN MEMORIAM

We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Magai Kaare and his family. Magai was a Principal Veterinary Officer with the Ministry of Livestock Development. The Afya Serengeti project formed the basis of his PhD on rabies control in rural Tanzania (optimizing the design and implementation of canine vaccination programs). His work in developing effective control strategies as a model for rabies control in rural Africa played an important role in advancing the Afya Serengeti project.

We are deeply indebted to him for his contribution to our efforts, and he is sorely missed.