Management and socio-economics of tsetse control

Working with Knowledge and Attitudes

Improving people’s knowledge of tsetse, trypanosomiasis and their control, and changing peoples’ attitudes, are essentially extension or communication activities. There is an enormous literature on extension, and only a few general comments will be made here:

• Literacy is obviously an important variable to be considered, but even if very few people are literate, much can be done with materials that mix pictorial with simple written messages – literate community members such as teachers can explain materials, which then remain with people as a reminder.

• Visual materials can be displayed in places where people congregate – not only veterinary clinics, but human clinics, shops, churches and beerhalls

• It is worth trying to communicate explicitly the cost-benefit relations of tsetse control: posters can be devised expressing in simple language and imagery the full long-term costs to a cattle-owner of living with trypanosomiasis and the (hopefully lesser) costs of tsetse control.

• Mixed strategies are usually the best: mixtures of visual materials, written materials, hands-on demonstrations