[e-drug] Sleeping sickness prevention

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E-drug: Sleeping sickness prevention
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BMJ 2001;323:711 (29 September 2001)

Fake cows help to reduce sleeping sickness and use of insecticides 

Annabel Ferriman, BMJ 

A new artificial cow is helping to eradicate the tsetse fly from parts
of Africa, thereby reducing the incidence of sleeping sickness,
which is transmitted by the pest. 

Although the fake cows do not look like cows, they smell like them,
attracting the flies with kairomones, a blend of chemicals emitted
by one species and detected by another. The flies then die because
the fake cattle are impregnated with insecticides. 

Developed by an international group of researchers, including
scientists from the University of Greenwich, the cows were
introduced into Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s, when thousands of
cattle were infected with nagana, a disease equivalent to sleeping
sickness in cattle. Cases of nagana in the country plummeted to
almost zero and have remained at this low level for the past five
years. A total of 60000 cows are now in use in Zimbabwe. 

Their use has also reduced the amount of insecticide needed to
control tsetse flies. Dr Stephen Torr of the University of
Greenwich's natural resources institute, said: "During the
mid-1980s, when cases of nagana were at their peak in Zimbabwe,
the government was spraying 100-200 tons of DDT pesticide per
year to control the tsetse fly population. 

This pest control policy has now been abandoned in favour of more
effective and environmentally friendly alternatives such as artificial
cows." 

Funding for the project came partly from the United Kingdom's
Department for International Development and partly from the
European Union. 

Sleeping sickness affects over 60 million people in 36 countries,
according to the latest statistics from the World Health
Organization. Sleeping sickness and nagana are transmitted to
humans and cattle by tsetse flies infected with the parasite
Trypanosoma brucei. 


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