Maintaining zebu Maure cattle in a tsetse infested area of Mali. II. Epidemiological considerations.

Scheduled monitoring of tsetse and other biting flies at Tienfala Forest, Republic of Mali from December 1979 until June 1981 yielded more than 14,500 specimens. Comparisons of the monthly totals of tsetse and other biting flies with the monthly incidence of bovine trypanosomiasis in sentinel cattle suggested that biological transmission by a single riverine species of tsetse, Glossina palpalis gambiensis, accounted for most if not all disease transmission at the study site. The data obtained also suggested that human decisions had contributed to the magnitude if not the degree of the disease problem at the study site and that viable solutions to the disease problem exist.