Emergence and transmission of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and the Serum Resistance Associated gene in wildlife hosts

A single gene separates a harmless livestock parasite from one that causes a fatal human disease, and this project will track how that gene moves through wild animals in Africa. Human African Trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, kills thousands of people each year when tsetse flies transmit the parasite *Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense*. The parasite is genetically identical to a livestock-infecting form except for one gene—the Serum Resistance Associated (SRA) gene—that makes it able to infect humans. Researchers have not been able to study how this gene spreads in wildlife because collecting tissue samples from wild animals is extremely difficult. This project will validate a non-invasive method: detecting the parasite in animal faeces. The researcher will collect faecal samples from multiple wildlife species, then sequence the parasites' genomes to map how SRA emerges and moves between animal hosts. If successful, this work will reveal why human sleeping sickness cases sometimes spike suddenly, turning into epidemics. Understanding the wildlife reservoir could allow health authorities to predict outbreaks before they reach people, and to target tsetse control efforts more precisely. The research is fundamentally about parasite evolution and transmission ecology, not about developing a new drug or vaccine—but knowing how the SRA gene circulates is a necessary step toward any future intervention that might block it.