Dairy production to supply African urban centers is one of the dynamic livestock sectors in sub-Saharan Africa (periurban dairy farms). There is a modification in the relative impact of economically important diseases: these farms have an increased capacity to control the major traditional African diseases through genetic or health interventions, hence favouring the emergence of diseases of intensification, which affect dairy production. In this framework, the International Livestock Centre for Africa is starting a research programme which aims, by an ecopathological approach, to judge the true existence of this pathology as opposed to the major African diseases, and to compare its economic importance in various agroecological zones.