Modelling the control of tsetse and African trypanosomiasis through application of insecticides on cattle in Southeastern Uganda
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In Uganda, cattle are an important reservoir of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, a parasite that causes human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness. We developed mathematical models to examine the transmission of T. b. rhodesiense by tsetse vector species, Glossina fuscipes fuscipes in a host population that consists of humans, domestic and wild mammals, and reptiles. The models were developed and analysed based on the situation in Tororo district in Southeastern Uganda, where sleeping sickness is endemic and which has a cattle and human population of 40, 000 and 500, 000, respectively. Assuming populations of cattle and humans only, the impact of mass chemoprophylaxis and vector control through insecticide-treated cattle (ITC) is evaluated. Keeping 12% or 82% of the cattle population on insecticides that have an insecticidal killing effect of 100% at all times or trypanocides that have 100% efficacy, respectively, can lead to the control of T. b. rhodesiense in both humans and cattle. Optimal control of T. b. rhodesiense is shown to be achieved through ITC alone or a combination of chemoprophylaxis and ITC, the former being the cheapest control strategy. Allowing for the waning effect of insecticides and including wildhosts, T. b. rhodesiense control can be achieved by keeping 21% or 27% of the cattle population on insecticides through whole-body or restricted application, respectively. Restricting the treatment of insecticides to adult cattle only would require 24% or 33% of the adult cattle population to be kept on insecticides through whole-body or restricted application, respectively, to control T. b. rhodesiense. A cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis of using ITC to control T. b. rhodesiense show that restricted application of insecticides is a cheaper and more beneficial strategy compared to whole-body treatment. The results of the study show that the restricted application of insecticides on cattle provides a cheap, safe and farmer-based strategy for controlling tsetse and trypanosomiasis.
Author: Damian Kajunguri
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2140310892