N'Dama

N'Dama is a humpless taurine cattle breed native to the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea in West Africa, notable for its trypanotolerance, a natural resistance to the parasitic disease trypanosomiasis carried by the tsetse fly. That resistance allows N'Dama cattle to survive and be kept in tsetse-infested regions of West and Central Africa where susceptible zebu cattle breeds cannot be raised, making the breed central to pastoral and mixed-farming economies across a wide belt of the region. Smaller and slower growing than many zebu breeds, N'Dama cattle are valued less for rapid beef output than for their hardiness, disease resistance and ability to work and reproduce reliably under difficult tropical conditions with minimal veterinary input. The breed has been studied extensively by agricultural researchers seeking to understand and transfer its trypanotolerance to other cattle breeds through crossbreeding.