Control of tsetse flies, Glossina spp.
Control of tsetse flies, Glossina spp.
Tags: Other arthropods, Sterile insect technique (SIT)D. A. Dame and A. M. Jordan, Advances in Veterinary Science and Comparative Medicine, 25:101-119. 1981.
Studies of SIT in Zimbabwe with releases of chemosterilized G. m. morsitans (Dame and Schmidt, 1970) demonstrated the feasibility of the methodology used both in the laboratory and in the field. Subsequent trials were recently completed in Tanzania, where laboratory bred sterile males were released into the natural breeding areas of a population of flies that had been partially suppressed by two aerial applications of endosulfan. Over a quarter of a million irradiated insects were released to control the G. m. morsitans population on a 195-km2 cattle ranch. The flies proved to be fully competitive andeffective. If it had been possible to isolate the plot from immigrating tsetse, the natural population on the ranch would probably have beep eliminated with a substantially lower number of flies than was necV essary to maintain the prolonged 90% level of control that was achieved (Dame et al., 1980). In Upper Volta, similar advances werd made with sterile G. p. gambiensis, bred in the laboratory and released in linear riverine habitats. Glossina p. gambiensis was eradicated from an 11-km section of the experimental plot (Cuisance et al., 1980)/ These accomplishments were completed after extensive study in Chad/ the Central African Republic, and Upper Volta.
