Uganda, Jan. 31 -- It has been excruciatingly obvious for some time that diseases threaten to send Uganda's livestock industry into some kind of existential panic. Now new empirical evidence captures the intolerable damage being caused, with the aggregate annual direct and indirect loss estimated at more than $1.1 billion. That works out to about Shs4.1 trillion.

Tick-borne animal challenges, with East Coast Fever at the vanguard of the pain points, have proven an implacable adversary. The continued presence of multi-acaricide resistant ticks on Ugandan farms forms yet another haunting subtext that cannot be wished away.

At any rate, these problems left unaddressed will ensure that the livestock industry's aspirations-and indeed those o...