Prof. Rene du Toit (1904-1988)

Abstract

Prof. du Toit was head of the Entomology section. He will best be remembered for determining that bluetongue disease of sheep and horse sickness are transmitted by the midges of the Culicoides genus. Both diseases are caused by members of the Reoviridae family of viruses. In addition, in the early 1950's he devised methods of controlling tsetse flies (Glossina spp.), the transmitters of the protozoan parasites, Trypanosoma spp., which cause nagana or trypanosomiosis, by periodically applying insecticides (eg BHC) in aerosol form at their breeding sites, or by aerial spraying at strategic sites. Nagana remains the most important disease of livestock in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Bluetongue and horse sickness are also extremely important diseases. He was awarded a DVSc degree by the University of Pretoria in 1953 for a thesis based on his research on the control of tsetse flies. He served as Dean of the Onderstepoort Faculty from 1960 to 1963. He died in Cape Town in 1988, aged 84 years.