Abstract
Tick and tick-borne diseases, especially East Coast fever, caused byTheileria parva, are amongst the most important factors limiting cattle production in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. In the past, they have been controlled mainly by the use of acaricides to kill ticks. Immunization has been shown to be an effective alternative method of control of tick-borne diseases in limited field trials. A development program has been initiated to produce vaccines and implement immunization on a wide scale in the region in a sustainable manner as part of an integrated tick and tickborne disease control program. The consequent reduction in cattle mortality is expected to have far-reaching benefits for the region