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London: A perfume for cows that will make them smell like humans is the next frontier in the fight against malaria.
According to The Times in London, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has already donated $100,000 (Sh8.7 million) for development of the perfume meant to confuse mosquitoes and help prevent the spread of malaria, a disease that kills a child every minute.
A Californian company, ISCA Technologies, which specialises in producing chemicals to lure insects, invented the bovine perfume. The backers of the project believe that by making cattle smell like humans, mosquitoes will be duped into biting cows instead of human beings.
Cows will be treated with an insecticide that kills mosquitoes that attempt to feast on them. However, the cows that are bitten will not contract human malaria. “This project will work to divert disease-carrying insects like mosquitoes from people to animals that have been pre-treated to resist infection. Insects that typically target animals will be confused or repelled by the altered odours emanating from the treated animal hosts,” the Gates Foundation said.
Malaria remains one of the leading killer-diseases in Kenya. Last year, it accounted for 12.2 per cent deaths (23,789) according to the Kenya Economic Survey 2014.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there were 207 million cases of malaria in 2012, resulting in 627,000 deaths globally. About 1,300 children die of the disease daily.
The “cow cologne” builds on research that has suggested that livestock can be used to lessen malaria. In 1999, a research team led by Dr Mark Rowland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in the UK, showed that treating livestock with insecticides could kill mosquitoes.
“The results of tests carried out in villages in Afghanistan were dramatic. Treating livestock with insecticide produced a 56 per cent fall in falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease. The treatment was found to be as effective as spraying homes to kill mosquitos, but cost 80 per cent less,” The Times said on Tuesday.
Agenor Mafra-Neto, the researcher who founded ISCA Technologies, plans to use the foundation’s grant to test his cow perfume in California and then in Kenya later this year.
Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells.
Symptoms are fever, headache, and vomiting. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the supply of blood to vital organs.
In many parts of the world, the parasites have developed resistance to a number of drugs.
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