Amakebe: A disease of calves in Uganda

Abstract

Amakebe is the most important disease of cattle in Uganda. It attacks the calves soon after they are born, and destroys more than half of them. Among the native cattle the loss is reported to be as much as 75 per cent., but, with careful nursing and hand-feeding, this mortality may be reduced to between 20 and 30 per cent. This is an enormous toll to pay, and renders the breeding of cattle in Uganda for dairy purposes, or, indeed, for any purpose, very up-hill work. Little up to the present has been written as to the nature and causation of Amakebe. It has been described as a trypanosome disease, but this evidently on insufficient knowledge.