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Lisette Kohagne Tongue, Philemon Mansinsa Diabaka, Patrick Bitsindou, Francis Jacques Louis. Have tsetse flies disappeared from Brazzaville town?. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2009;3:3 Key words: Disappearance, Glossina, sleeping sickness, Congo Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/3/3/full Received: 21/06/2009 - Accepted: 26/08/2009 - Published: 28/08/2009 © Lisette Kohagne Tongue et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Have tsetse flies disappeared from Brazzaville town?
Lisette Kohagne Tongué1&, Philemon Mansinsa Diabakana2, Patrick Bitsindou3 and Francis Jacques Louis1
1Programme sous régional de lutte contre la trypanosomiase humaine africaine, Organisation de Coordination pour la lutte contre les Endémies en Afrique Centrale (OCEAC). 2Programme national de lutte contre la trypanosomiase humaine africaine de la République Démocratique du Congo. 3Direction de la lutte contre la maladie, Ministère de la Santé, des Affaires Sociales et de la Famille du Congo.
&Corresponding author: Kohagne Tongué Lisette, B.P. 15 665, OCEAC, Yaoundé, Cameroon. Telephone: 22 10 38 49.
From 1980 to 1985, the zoological park of Brazzaville was the only tsetse resting site located in downtown which supplied others temporary sites. The last trapping survey carried out in this area in 1987 showed that there were no more tsetse flies. Knowing that areas free of tsetse used to be reinvaded many years later, we have carried out an entomological survey in the area with the aim to verify what has happened more than twenty years later; given that suitable environmental conditions for Glossina are still available.
Sixteen pyramidal traps were set out at the edge of the forest, along paths and around animal’s cages and were examined twice a day, at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. during four days.
No tsetse fly was captured. Using the formula previously described; the probability of capturing a tsetse fly is 0.002.
The zoological park seems close to be free of tsetse flies. Long-lasting surveys within the town and around are required before stating a complete disappearance of tsetse in the town.
