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Tsetse flies are regarded as a major cause of rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa [10] because they prevent mixed farming. The land infested with tsetse flies is often cultivated by people using hoes rather than more efficient draught animals because nagana, the disease transmitted by tsetse, weakens and often kills these animals. Cattle that ...
Glossina fuscipes is a riverine fly species in the genus Glossina, which are commonly known as tsetse flies. [1] Typically found in sub-Saharan Africa [2] but with a small Arabian range, [3] G. fuscipes is a regional vector of African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness, that causes significant rates of morbidity and mortality among humans and livestock. [4]
The epimastigotes reach the fly's salivary glands and continue multiplication by binary fission. [23] The entire life cycle of the fly takes about three weeks. In addition to the bite of the tsetse fly, the disease can be transmitted by: Mother-to-child infection: the trypanosome can sometimes cross the placenta and infect the fetus. [24]
G. morsitans is found in East Africa and Equatorial Africa. [1] [9]It is the tsetse species that is presently reported from the highest number of African countries, [10] i.e. at least 22 including: Angola, Burkina Faso, [11] Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, [12] Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, [13] Mozambique, Nigeria, [14] Rwanda ...
The flies in this superfamily are blood-feeding obligate parasites of their hosts. Four families are often placed here: Glossinidae - Tsetse flies; Hippoboscidae - Ked flies; Nycteribiidae - Bat flies; Streblidae - Bat flies (Note that the Mystacinobiidae, while also a bat fly, belongs to the superfamily Oestroidea).
However, all flies are susceptible to extremes in temperature (outside of the 16-40 degree Celsius range). Furthermore, trypanosomes are only able to reproduce in tsetse flies between the 25 to 30 Celsius range. These factors mean that only a minority of tsetse flies, around 20 percent, are estimated to carry trypanosomes. [12]
Tsetse fly populations can be reduced or eliminated by traps, insecticides, and by treating infected animals with antiparasitic drugs. The tsetse habitat can be destroyed by alteration of vegetation. Some drugs can prevent trypanosomiasis, and are called prophylactic drugs.
Historically, tsetse flies carrying the nagana disease protected the area from colonial hunters. Later, as the Zululand area was settled by white farmers, wildlife in the reserves was blamed for the prevalence of the tsetse fly, and the reserves became experimental areas in the efforts to eradicate the fly. Farmers called for the slaughter of ...