Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T23:28:44.592Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tsetse Flies carried by Railway Trains in Kenya Colony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

E. Aneurin Lewis
E. Aneurin Lewis
Affiliation:
Chief Field Zoologist, Kabete, Kenya Colony.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Railway trains running through tsetse-infested country between Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya Colony carry G. longipennis, G. pcdlidipes and G. brevipalpis on to stock-farming areas beyond the natural limit of the fly belt, thus being largely responsible for outbreaks of animal trypanosomiasis and a reluctance on the part of European, Asian and African settlers to develop the land, affected by this form of fly dispersal, to its full capacity.

The country through which the trains travel is described together with an account of a survey of the fly distribution.

Tabulated figures are given of the monthly totals of tsetses collected from passenger and goods trains by teams of fly boys posted at Emali and Sultan Hamud railway stations about 17 and 25 miles respectively outside the fly belt towards Nairobi More than 24,000 flies were collected over a period of one year and many, not collected by the de-flying teams, were carried up-country even as far as Nairobi, 101 miles from the fly belt.

Tsetses were collected from inside passenger trains, but very much larger numberswere taken from the outer surfaces and undercarriages of goods trucks.

Reference is also made to the rôle of motor traffic, especially when in convoy in the dispersal of tsetses.

The incidence of animal trypanosomiasis along the line of the railway is dealt with and the association of the disease with tsetses carried by trains is supported by results of laboratory experiments on the transmissibility of Trypanosoma congolense, T. vivax and T. brucei by the three species of flies concerned.

Bush-clearing on stock farms outside the fly belt will not protect the cattle from infection carried by flies brought by trains but bush-clearing in specified localities of fly concentration in the infested country is recommended as a measure to reduce the numbers now attracted to trains. It is considered that the spraying of trains will bring considerable relief to farmers ; but, so far, no suitable spraying apparatus has been devised nor has a reasonably cheap insecticide been found for this purpose.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , February 1950 , pp. 511 - 531
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1950

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Austen, E. E. (1911). A Handbook of Tsetse-flies, pp. 60, 62, 91, 104 & 105.—London, Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.).Google Scholar
Fairbairn, H. (1943). The agricultural problems posed by sleeping sickness settlements.—E. Afr. agric. J., 9, pp. 17–22.Google Scholar
Glasgow, J. P. & Duffy, B. J. (1947). The extermination of Glossina palpalis fuscipes, Newstead, by hand-catching.—Bull. ent. Res., 38, pp. 465–477.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, E. A. (1941). Interim Report on Experiments to control Glossina pallidipes in the Lambwe Valley, South Kavirondo, Kenya Colony.—11 mimeographed pp. 5 08., 1941.Google Scholar
Lewis, E. A.. (1942a). Notes on Glossina longipennis and its breeding-places.—Bull. ent. Res., 32, pp. 303–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, E. A.. (1942b). Tsetse-flies and development in Kenya Colony.—E. Afr. agric. J., 7, pp. 183–189; 8, pp. 9–14, 74–79.Google Scholar
Lewis, E. A.. (1947). Second progress report of tsetse fly and trypanosomiasis survey and control in Kenya Colony.—30 pp., Nairobi, Off. Memb. Agric. nat. Resources.Google Scholar
Milne, A. D. (1910). Sleeping sickness news.—Bull. Sleep. Sickn. Bur., 2, pp. 37–38. (Notes on a Conference of Medical and Veterinary Officers held on the 26th April, 1910 at Nairobi, Kenya Colony.)Google Scholar
Neave, S. A. (1912). Notes on the blood-sucking insects of eastern tropical Africa.—Bull. ent. Res., 3, pp. 275–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newstead, R., Evans, A. M., & Potts, W. H. (1924). Guide to the study of tsetse Flies.—Mem. L'pool. Sch. trop. Med., (N.S.) no. 1, pp. 57, 67, 89, 90, 101, 119 & 227.Google Scholar
Ross, P. H. (1911). Nairobi Laboratory Reports, 1, pp. 61–62.Google Scholar
Swynnerton, C. F. M. (1936). The Tsetse Flies of East Africa.—Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond., 84, p. 297.Google Scholar
Symes, C. B. & Southby, R. (1938). The reduction of G. palpalis in a lake shore area by the “block” method.—32 pp., Nairobi, Govt. Print.Google Scholar
Symes, C. B. & Vane, R. T. (1937). The eradication of G. palpalis from river areas by the “block” method.—61 pp., Nairobi, Govt. Print.Google Scholar