When making decisions in animal trypanosomosis control, planners must grapple with complex choices regarding the goals of the interventions and the best control strategies, tactics and tools for each situation. Stakeholders’ priorities must also be considered in the decision-making process.

These choices often determine the extent to which the interventions are successful, and how cost-effective they are.

To help strategic planning and to rationalize decision-making, a “progressive control pathway” was developed for animal trypanosomosis. However, implementation guidelines for this approach are lacking, and uptake at the national level needs to be promoted.

COMBAT will generate internationally-agreed guidelines for the progressive control pathway, and promote the streamlining of the approach into national strategies and roadmaps.