Equipment and Supplies for a Ugandan Field Trip

 

For several years I took students from Saskatoon's Western College of Veterinary Medicine to Uganda on a month-long field trip. We met people from the Makerere University veterinary school and in particular the Department of Wildlife and Animal Rescource Management.


During the trip we worked on the human x wildlife x livestock interface, which, in Africa is a very complicated matrix.

One thing I always prepared for our students was a check list.  First of course was the list of essentials. Then the basic supplies. Some I considered essential, others less so.  

Even today, three years after I retired, students come to me every year for advice. This year another group  of 2nd year students are off to Kenya and Uganda on a Global Vets program. Here is the blog from the WCVM 2008 group.

Here is a slightly edited version of the list that I used.


Equipment and supplies required for Uganda

ESSENTIAL
Ensure that your travel insurance covers medical emergency evacuation. 

Must , MUST Bring

•   Passport; 3 copies of passport ID pages
  
•   international student card (park entrance)
  
•   money (US $), use high denomination notes. The Forex bureaus don’t like 20s. (watch date, this changes every year. As a general rule bring no notes that are more than 5 years old)
  
•   Credit card or bank card
  
•   vaccination records
  
•   travel insurance
  
•   ticket...for airlines
  
•   malarial prophylactics
  

Clothing

Take old clothes that you don’t want to bring back. They can be left behind as gifts.

•   jackets
   wind/ waterproof, LIGHTWEIGHT
   fleece/ sweater – it can drop to +15 at night
   (rarely, a bit colder)
  
•   shirts
  
  •   long sleeve shirts (2)
    
  •   cotton shirt
    
  •   quick dry/ wicking shirt (i.e. polyester)/ short sleeve?
    
  •   tank top?(1) –
     Spaghetti strap shirts are OK (for certain folks)
    
  •   no white clothes (red dust everywhere)
    
•   Pants
   bug pants/ nylon pants  cotton pants (1-2)
  
•   shorts
   respectable (e.g. hiking) shorts (1)
  
•   socks
   hiking/ wicking socks (3-6 pairs). Long enough to allow you to tuck in your trouser
  bottoms in mosquito & tick areas – prevents ankle bites
  
•   unmentionables (used to be known as “smalls”)
   you decide
  
•   My wife (who came along on all these trips) suggested loose cotton (drip dry) dresses or skirts as they are cool (to wear, if not sartorially splendid)
  
•   shoes
  
  •   hiking boots or similar for field work.
    
  •   sandals – for use in showers etc) Shoes tend to be bulky, so keep them to minimum. If you really want to bring runners as well, that’s fine.
    
•   extras
  
  •   swim suit – almost everyone takes to the pool on the day off in Queen Elizabeth NP
    
  •   camera & good sized card (4 or even 8GB)
    
  •   If camera is digital, I have a card reader and can download (as long as my laptop doesn’t
    fry.
    
  •   Someone needs to make sure we have plenty of CDs for downloads
    

• SUPPLIES
•   Cell phone and charger (almost essential) SIM cards can be purchased locally. Air time is cheap and renewable almost everywhere. The network is superb. Everyone texts as a routine matter (known locally as sms). Land lines are either very unreliable or non-existent. Incoming calls are free, so get family members to call from Canada
     toiletries
   towel (divers/ swimmer’s towel→ wring & it dries fast), face cloth  
•  toothbrush, toothpaste, floss etc
   lotion: unscented, vit E lotion (99%) for people who sunburn easily  
•  shampoo, soap (unscented)
  
•   sleeping bag and sheet/ liner (It will not likely get any colder than about +10C at night)
  
•   therma-rest – bulky, but as there are only a limited number of dense foam mattresses it will prove useful if you have to camp.

•   Treated mosquito net for sleeping - available in Uganda and can be ordered ahead at about $15 per, compared to about $40 for ones purchased here. Can be left behind as gifts or for the next lot of students.
•   bug dope: DEET approx 20% (we use 33%)
  
•   sun screen; at least 25 SPF. Higher the better. Lip balm with sun screen (not with Camphor/menthol)
  
•   sun glasses with UV protection
  
•   hat→wide brim for ear coverage
  
•   canvas duffel bag/ back pack for day-to-day use. If you have a backpack that has an extra outside daypack compartment, it might well prove useful. If not, the sort of thing that is used for folks to bring lunch & books to school would suit
  
•   Money belt or fanny pack
  
•   Head lamp and spare batteries. Essential (or flashlight if you want).
  
•   Personal first aid (headaches, a few bandaids (blisters) etc)
  
•   crib board, cards, backgammon or whatever takes your fancy
  
•   At least one book to read. Try and liaise ahead and make sure no duplication. Then swaps can
  occur.
  
•   Swiss army knife/ multi-purpose tool
  
•   Some sort of hardy water bottle (You will get thirsty – frequent re-hydration is essential –
  probably at least 1.5 L per day of water, maybe 2.5 on hot days (it can get up to almost 40 Celsius)
  
  Treats
  Bring some sort of snacks (Granola bars for instance) BUT - not ones that melt in heat (This is bad luck for chocaholics). Your biggest challenge will be not to eat them all in the first 2 days. These will act as what is known as comfort food as you find yourselves in a strange environment.
  
  Optionals 
    mP3. I have a solar iPod charger (will also charge the phones) 
    Binoculars

•   H2O filter - bottled water is available everywhere, but tends to run out.
  
•   Lonely Planet Travel Guide
  
•   For anything electronic, bring plug adapter. Most systems are on 240 V.
  
•   Note book(s) with water proof paper, pencils & eraser for those who wish to keep a journal
  
•   Water purification tabs – no need to go overboard - (bottled water is widely available, but
  may be difficult to get in camp at Lake Mburo NP).
  
•   Motion sickness pills if needed
  
•   When at swimming sites, or relaxing around camp in the day time have a sarong type wrap
  for going to the bar, or away from the pool. These are known as kikoi for men, kitenge for
  women. Obviously worn at different levels. Readily available in Kampala if you lack one.
  
•   String & clothes pegs (not everyone needs this, but 3 sets or so will prove useful)
  
  Medications
  Malaria prophylactics, antibiotics (at least one full course), headache meds,
  bandaids, wound ointment, laxative, diarrhea med, powder (Johnson’s baby or equivalent). Consult your physician or health centre well before you leave. Some vaccination courses require 6 months for complete coverage..
  Eyeglass prescriptions (glasses can be replaced in Kampala at much less cost than in Canada).
  For those who wear contacts, bring a pair of glasses – dust, etc can be a problem, also bring some eye ointment, as conjunctivitis can be a problem if you wear contacts

Surprises
Folks not used to travel in developing countries and tropical environments may be surprised by the fact that flush lavatories are rare and almost non-existent in remote spots.   This is the more likely option.



You will not be surprised that after a month of teaching and "mother henning"  almost 24/7 I got tired, or even exhausted. Someone in one of our groups caught me out in a day-time nap.

Human Tuberculosis in wildlife

I picked up this interesting item on the Wildlife Disease Digest listserve (wdin@usgs.gov) of today's date. They run a blog (here) that covers many topics, and this one caught my eye. It concerns a recent article in the Times of South Africa has highlighted a problem that is likely to get worse as human populations expand and wild animals become more and more crowded and pressurized by people. The headline reads Human TB Strain Jumps To Animals and the key sentence reads “The human strain of the disease has been found in springbok, mongooses, baboons, chimpanzees and, most recently, a Maltese poodle." (Note the incorrect use of the plural mongooses, with the extra "s") The full story can be found here.

Of course this article builds upon scientific reports from authors working in other regions, most notably Botswana and South Africa, where the human form of the disease, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been found in both banded mongoose and meerkats (aka suricates).

An important journal article published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases by Kathleen Alexander and her co-investigators that describes the situation can be found here. Simply put, the animals had probably been exposed to the human form of tuberculosis at rubbish tips, or by investigating sputum that passers by had spat on to the ground. As Tb is the world’s most important infectious disease, and appears to manifest itself even more rapidly than before when a person is infected with HIV/AIDS, the risk to the animals is hugely increased.

We have seen examples of this self-same situation in Uganda, where, I had taken students from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 2003. The trip was the first in what has become an annual rotation for final year students enrolled in the college, and it is called the “African Wildlife Experience.” (you can find out more about at the 2007 and 2008 students blogs here.) Our goal is to link closely with students and faculty of the Makerere University Veterinary school, specifically the Department of Wildlife and Animal Resource Management (aka WARM).

In 2003 we saw a severely emaciated warthog (seen here) at Mweya, in Queen Elizabeth National park, and Ugandan faculty member Dr. Ludwig Siefert obtained permission to immobilize it and carry out a necropsy. We all saw lesions in liver and lung that looked very much like Tb, just like these small white spots in the liver, but to date we have had no confirmation of culture results.

The connections to human and other animal activity are interesting and convoluted. The warthogs in and around the lodge and backpacker’s hostel are totally habituated and can be found rooting in the garbage at any time – witness these two photos. Not only are they habituated to humans, but they have an amazing symbiotic relationship with banded mongoose, the same species that has been diagnosed with Tb in Botswana.

As this photo shows, the mongoose will clamber all over a warthog, appearing to search for food goodies that may range from ticks to skin scraps and who-knows-what else. Warthogs will lie down and solicit attention as soon as they see a mongoose.

Most alarming has been the recent finding in the park of an elephant that had lesions resembling Tb. We are going to Uganda again in February, and will hope to learn more. I wonder if the elephant is the bottle-raised Maria, seen here near the hostel and very near a group of warthogs, that has been a more-or-less permanent resident of the area. In 2003 she tried her damndest to get into our rooms, convinced that the bananas unwisely stored there were for her. The only problem was that she could not get her 40 inch wide frame through the 30 inch wide doors. She did manage to drink the wash water that one of our students had so carefully collected.