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

dc.contributor.authorMweempwa, Cornelius
dc.contributor.authorMarcotty, Tanguy
dc.contributor.authorDe Pus, Claudia
dc.contributor.authorPenzhorn, Barend Louis
dc.contributor.authorDicko, Ahmadou Hamady
dc.contributor.authorBouyer, Jeremy
dc.contributor.authorDe Deken, Reginald
dc.date.accessioned2015-10-20T12:02:49Z
dc.date.available2015-10-20T12:02:49Z
dc.date.issued2015-08-04
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND : 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. METHODS : A longitudinal study was conducted to establish the age structure, abundance, proportion of females and trypanosome infection rate of Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood (Diptera: Glossinidae) in areas of varying degrees of habitat fragmentation in Eastern Zambia. Black screen fly rounds were used to sample tsetse populations monthly for 1 year. Logistic regression was used to analyse age, proportion of females and infection rate data. RESULTS : Flies got significantly older as fragmentation increased (p < 0.004). The proportion of old flies, i.e. above ovarian category four, increased significantly (P < 0.001) from 25.9 % (CI 21.4–31.1) at the least fragmented site (Lusandwa) to 74.2 % (CI 56.8–86.3) at the highly fragmented site (Chisulo). In the most fragmented area (Kasamanda), tsetse flies had almost disappeared. In the highly fragmented area a significantly higher trypanosome infection rate in tsetse (P < 0.001) than in areas with lower fragmentation was observed. Consequently a comparatively high trypanosomosis incidence rate in livestock was observed there despite lower tsetse density (p < 0.001). The overall proportion of captured female flies increased significantly (P < 0.005) as fragmentation reduced. The proportion increased from 0.135 (CI 0.10–0.18) to 0.285 (CI 0.26–0.31) at the highly and least fragmented sites, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : Habitat fragmentation creates conditions to which tsetse populations respond physiologically and demographically thereby affecting tsetse-trypanosome interactions and hence influencing trypanosomosis risk. Temperature rise due to fragmentation coupled with dominance of old flies in populations increases infection rate in tsetse and hence creates high risk of trypanosomosis in fragmented areas. Possibilities of how correlations between biological characteristics of populations and the degree of fragmentation can be used to structure populations based on their well-being, using integrated GIS and remote sensing techniques are discussed.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianam2015en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://www.parasitesandvectors.comen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMweempwa, C, Marcotty, T, De Pus, C, Penzhorn, BL, Dicko, AH, Bouyer, J & De Deken, R 2015, 'Impact of habitat fragmentation on tsetse populations and trypanosomosis risk in Eastern Zambia', Parasites and Vectors, vol. 8, no. 1, art. no. 406, pp. 1-10.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1756-3305
dc.identifier.other10.1186/s13071-015-1018-8
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/50257
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherBioMed Centralen_ZA
dc.relation.requiresAdobe Acrobat Readeren
dc.rights© 2015 Mweempwa et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.en_ZA
dc.subjectHabitat fragmentationen_ZA
dc.subjectTsetse ecologyen_ZA
dc.subjectTrypanosomosisen_ZA
dc.subjectZambiaen_ZA
dc.titleImpact of habitat fragmentation on tsetse populations and trypanosomosis risk in Eastern Zambiaen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

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