Senegal celebrates first victory against tsetse fly eradication

A campaign against the tsetse fly, a pest that transmits a disease that devastates livestock, in the Niayes area near the capital Dakar started four years ago paving the way for complete eradication of this pest. “I have not seen a single tsetse fly for a year now,” said cattle farmer Oumar Sow. “This is in contrast to earlier, when they increased in numbers, especially during the cold season. The flies were really a nuisance to our animals and we had to carefully select the time for milking. Now, there is no problem with that.” Senegal has successfully integrated an insect birth control technique using irradiation to sterilize male flies, reducing the fly population over time. The technique has already eradicated the fly population in one area in the Niayes, suppressed it in another by 98 per cent, while the technique will be implemented in a third area in 2016, said Baba Sall, Project Manager at Senegal’s Ministry of Livestock and Animal Production.

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