Since its inception in April 2018, the Africa Centre of Excellence for Infectious Diseases of Humans and Animals, in short, ACEIDHA, has continued to live up to its mandate of producing a cadre of scientists and researchers in infectious diseases or zoonotic diseases that affect both humans and animals. ACEIDHA has progressively achieved this by offering full and partial scholarships to students from various countries of the African Continent to pursue postgraduate programmes in infectious diseases offered at the University of Zambia.

One of the many students supported by is Ms Chiluba Zimba who is pursuing a Master of Science in Tropical Infectious Diseases and Zoonosis. She undertook her field research activities from 30th August 2021 to 3rd September 2021. Ms Zimba’s field research activities were focused on collecting blood samples of goats in Choma district of Southern Province of Zambia. Her research study is entitled as: “Sero-prevalence and risk factors of Toxoplasma gondii in goats in Choma district”.

The findings of this study will contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the epidemiology of Toxoplasmosis in goats in order to determine sero-prevalence as well as risk factors associated with Toxoplasma gondii infection in Choma district of Zambia. The study findings will help with the development of prevention and control strategies for toxoplasmosis to protect goats and humans in Zambia from this zoonotic disease.