Heterogeneity in a communal cattle-farming system in a zone endemic for foot and mouth disease in South Africa.

In South Africa, communal livestock farming is predominant in the foot and mouth disease control zone adjacent to the Greater Kruger National Park (KNP), where infected African buffaloes are common. During routine veterinary inspections of cattle in this area, a large amount of production and demographic parameters were being recorded. These data were collated for a five-year period (2003-2007) in three study sites to better understand the temporal dynamics and spatial heterogeneity in this system.

Impact of habitat fragmentation on tsetse populations and trypanosomosis risk in Eastern Zambia.

Background: Fragmentation of tsetse habitat in eastern Zambia is largely due to encroachments by subsistence farmers into new areas in search of new agricultural land. The impact of habitat fragmentation on tsetse populations is not clearly understood. This study was aimed at establishing the impact of habitat fragmentation on physiological and demographic parameters of tsetse flies in order to enhance the understanding of the relationship between fragmentation and African animal trypanosomosis (AAT) risk.

Description of Events Where African Buffaloes (Syncerus caffer) Strayed from the Endemic Foot-and-Mouth Disease Zone in South Africa, 1998-2008.

African buffaloes (Syncerus caffer) are reservoir hosts of Southern African Territories (SAT) foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus strains. In South Africa, infected buffaloes are found in the FMD-infected zone comprising the Kruger National Park (KNP) and its adjoining reserves. When these buffaloes stray into livestock areas, they pose a risk of FMD transmission to livestock.

A Bayesian geostatistical Moran Curve model for estimating net changes of tsetse populations in Zambia.

For the first time a Bayesian geostatistical version of the Moran Curve, a logarithmic form of the Ricker stock recruitment curve, is proposed that is able to give an estimate of net change in population demographic rates considering components such as fertility and density dependent and density independent mortalities. The method is applied to spatio-temporally referenced count data of tsetse flies obtained from fly-rounds. The model is a linear regression with three components: population rate of change estimated from the Moran curve, an explicit spatio-temporal covariance, and the observation error optimised within a Bayesian framework.

Distribution and density of tsetse flies (Glossinidae: Diptera) at the game/people/livestock interface of the Nkhotakota Game Reserve human sleeping sickness focus in Malawi.

In large parts sub-Saharan Africa, tsetse flies, the vectors of African human or animal trypanosomiasis, are, or will in the foreseeable future, be confined to protected areas such as game or national parks. Challenge of people and livestock is likely to occur at the game/livestock/people interface of such infested areas. Since tsetse control in protected areas is difficult, management of trypanosomiasis in people and/or livestock requires a good understanding of tsetse population dynamics along such interfaces.

The impact of habitat fragmentation on tsetse abundance on the plateau of eastern Zambia.

Tsetse-transmitted human or livestock trypanosomiasis is one of the major constraints to rural development in sub-Saharan Africa. The epidemiology of the disease is determined largely by tsetse fly density. A major factor, contributing to tsetse population density is the availability of suitable habitat.