More recent studies, employing contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) to investigate BBB function in a murine model of HAT, demonstrated significant and widespread BBB dysfunction during CNS-stage disease . Furthermore, the barrier impairment was present in animals displaying only mild to moderate neuroinflammatory changes in the brain; typically comprised of inflammatory cells in the meninges and the development of perivascular cuffs around some of the blood vessels. In the investigation presented here we have extended these findings to ascertain when BBB impairment becomes apparent following T.b.brucei infection and measured the severity of the dysfunction. In addition, the degree of neuroinflammation and the trypanosome burden in the brain has been determined during the progression of the disease.