The main goal of COMBAT, controlling and progressively minimizing the burden of animal trypanosomosis (AT), is broken down into six specific objectives:

• to advance knowledge of the actors of AT epidemiological cycles: vectors, parasites, and their hosts, livestock and wildlife alike, studying their interactions in the laboratory and the field
• to improve control of AT, based on improved tools for prevention, surveillance, detection and treatment
• to develop information systems of AT and its vectors at the continental and national level
• to evaluate the burden of AT at a range of scales in Africa
• to improve strategies for AT control by fully developing and disseminating the progressive control pathway approach and streamlining it into national policies
• to increase capacity and awareness of COMBAT partners and AT stakeholders

By means of a sustainable reduction of AT incidence and burden, COMBAT will contribute to a number of sustainable development goals, in particular the reduction of poverty and the elimination of hunger.