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AGRICULTURE REPORT -- June 4, 2002: Tsetse Fly Threat
to Agriculture
By George Grow
This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE
REPORT.
The tsetse (TSEET-see) fly is a serious problem
in many parts of Africa. Tsetse flies cause problems in an area of almost
ten-million square kilometers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization says some of this area is fertile land that could be used
for agriculture. F-A-O officials say stopping the insect would help
African farmers reclaim land and increase food production.
Tsetse flies feed on the blood of humans and animals. The fly carries
a parasite that attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims.
This organism causes trypanosomiasis (tri-PAN-oh-so-MY-ah-sis), a disease
known as nagana (nah-GAH-nah) in farm animals. In humans, the disease
is called sleeping sickness.
Trypanosimiasis kills eighty percent of infected
victims. The disease affects an estimated five-hundred-thousand people.
It kills three-million farm animals each year.
Thirty-seven countries in Africa are affected
by tsetse flies. Thirty-two of these countries are among the poorest
in the world. Each year, it costs at least six-hundred-million dollars
to attempts to control the disease and in direct losses of meat and
milk production.
Jorge Hendrichs is an insect control expert
with the F-A-O. He says the tsetse fly keeps people poor by preventing
them from producing the food they need to survive. The tsetse fly and
trypanosimiasis have slowed the development of agriculture in Africa.
One-hundred-fifty-five-million cattle are being raised in tsetse-free
areas south of the Sahara Desert. The area of land that is tsetse-free
is small. It is being overused by both cattle and people.
One method that has proved successful in fighting
the tsetse is the sterile insect treatment. Male flies treated with
radiation become sterile, or unable to reproduce. The insects then are
released into areas with other flies. After mating, the eggs of the
wild females do not develop.
The F-A-O says the sterile insect treatment
has been used with traps and other methods to end the tsetse fly problem
on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. Mister Hendrichs says these efforts
have no long-lasting side effects on the environment.
Use of these methods may seem costly, especially
in some parts of Africa. Yet, Mister Hendrichs says the question is
not how much such methods cost, but how much living with the tsetse
costs.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT
was written by George Grow.
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