Latest news

Additions and changes to tsetse.org
Research updates

RECENT CHANGES TO TSETSE.ORG

March 2008
References relating to recently-published research on the use of insecticide-treated cattle have been added to some FAQ pages, with links to pdf files of the original papers (13 March 2008).

August 2005
A beta-version of 'Tsetse Muse' was added to the website. The programme is designed to help more specialised users plan large-scale operations using various techniques (artificial baits, insecticide-treated cattle, ground and aerial spraying and the Sterile Insect Technique) applied alone or in any temporal and spatial combination.

Underlying 'Tsetse Muse' is a general tsetse population model. To assist in 'what-if' analyses, the user can either vary all key assumptions or circumvent such complexities by getting the programme to make suggestions based on in-built data on the population dynamics of tsetse and the performance of various control technologies.

An example of the application of 'Tsetse Muse', published as a scientific paper in the journal Medical and Veterinary Entomology (Torr & Vale, 2005) was also added to the site.

December 2004:
An improved version of Tsetse Plan was made available on December 8 2004. This version takes account of feedback on the performance of the first (beta) version distributed in October 2003, and corrects a number of programming errors. In addition, several improvements have been made including:-

• Extra consideration of restricted application of insecticide to cattle.
  
• Production of an Outputs folder to hold the output books.
  
• The ability to place Tsetse Plan anywhere on your computer.

The programme has been written to operate on Microsoft Excel (version 2000, or later). The present version of Tsetse Plan has been tested with Excel 2000, and Windows 1998, 2000, XP Home and XP Professional and seems to work satisfactorily with these applications.

Some aspects of Tsetse Plan will not operate successfully with early versions of Office XP. This problem can be avoided by running the Office XP Service Pack (SP3 or later). This is freely available from the Microsoft Corporation. SP3 (file version 5.0.2919.6304) is available here.

If you find that Tsetse Plan has problems with these or other versions of Excel and Windows, please notify the authors. Moreover, please advise the authors of any suggestions you might have for improving Tsetse Plan.

The first version of Tsetse Plan is still available here. PLease note however, that the original version includes a number of minor programming errors that have been corrected in the latest release and we strongly recommend using the latest version.

February 2004:
A socio-economic module written by John Morton, and a slideshow on how to deploy a target produced by Birgit van Munster, Chess Kulanga and Hem Thakersi, were added to the bait technology section in January-February 2004. Ki-Swahili versions of the target and Epsilon trap slideshows have also been added to the technology section.

October 2003:
An updated version of Tsetse Plan was added on 15 October 2003.

September 2003:
Selected references have been added to most FAQ pages; some references link to pdf files of the original research papers (30 September 2003).

RESEARCH UPDATES

Does deltamethrin repel tsetse?
Pyrethroids are known to have an excito-repellent effect on some insects, and there is some evidence that the pyrethroid flumethrin repels tsetse (Bauer et al., 1989). This effect might lead tsetse to feed preferentially on untreated cattle.

Adam Prior (NRI) has undertaken a study of the effect of deltamethrin on host selection by tsetse in Zimbabwe. Using DNA markers to identify the individual-specific host(s) of tsetse attracted to pairs of cattle, Adam assessed whether host selection changed after one of the animals was treated with a pour-on formulation of deltamethrin. The experiment was repeated for three pairs of cattle and the host(s) of 363 fed tsetse were identified.

The results showed that treating cattle with deltamethrin had no significant effect, with the overall difference between control (untreated) and insecticide-treated cattle being just 1%. These results are in accordance with previous studies (Baylis et al., 1994; Vale et al., 1999) and suggest that the policy of selectively treating larger cattle will not be compromised by any repellent effects.

References
Bauer, B., Mayer, F. & Kabore, I. (1989). Effects of Flumethrin pour-on against Glossina palpalis gambiensis (Diptera: Glossinidae) during releases in a fly proof stable. Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 40, 478-479.

Baylis, M. Mbwabi, A.L. & Stevenson, P. (1994). The feeding success of tsetse flies, Glossina pallidipes Austen (Diptera: Glossinidae) on oxen treated with pyrethroid pour-ons at Galana Ranch, Kenya. Bulletin of Entomological Research 84, 447-452.

Vale, G.A., Mutika, G. & Lovemore, D.F. (1999). Insecticide-treated cattle for controlling tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae): some questions answered, many posed. Bulletin of Entomological Research 89, 569-578.