Summary
African animal trypanosomosis (AAT) is a major
hindrance to cattle breeding in the Mouhoun River Basin of Burkina
Faso. The authors describe a landscape approach that enables the mapping
of tsetse densities and AAT risk along the Mouhoun River loop (702 km
long) in Burkina Faso. Three epidemiological landscapes were described:
the first and most dangerous corresponded to protected forests and
their border areas, with a 0.74 apparent density of infectious
fly per trap per day (ADTi), the second to a partially disturbed vegetal
formation, with a 0.20 ADTi and the third to a completely disturbed
landscape with a 0.08 ADTi. Using this risk indicator, the first landscape
was 3.92 more risky than the second which was 3.13 more risky than
the last. Similar infectious rates were found in all landscapes (approximately
8%) but tsetse apparent densities dropped significantly (p<0.001)
in half-disturbed (2.66) and disturbed landscapes (0.80) in comparison
to the natural and border landscapes (11.77). Females were significantly
younger (mean physiological age of 29 days) only in the most
disturbed landscape (p<0.05) than in the two others one (41 days).
According to these results, practical implications of stratifying
AAT risk and mapping tsetse densities in vector control campaigns
are discussed.
Keywords
African
animal trypanosomosis, Burkina Faso, Epidemiological landscape,
Geographic information system, Remote sensing, Risk assessment,
Tsetse.
|