The importance of availability of relevant baseline data in the fight and eradication of tsetse cannot be overemphasized, veterinary experts at a regional meeting that opened today in Harare, say.
The five-day training course on entomological baseline data collection and management is being attended by several African countries.
The tsetse fly has been a pest and nuisance in most of tropical Africa since time immemorial with serious consequences on both livestock and humans.
Tsetse causes Animal African Trypanosomiasis (AAT) known as nagana in livestock and Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) known as sleeping sickness in humans.
Focusing on the tsetse fly, the training brought in specialists in tsetse research and control from16 African countries, is expected to enhance understanding of the dynamics of the vector and the disease.
Zimbabwe has received immense support in tsetse control through technical cooperation from IAEA’s support.
from the “Although this training is work in progress,” says Chantel de Beer, from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna ,Austria, ,”we hope this particular project goes a long way in building data to enhance service delivery.”
Building a data repository, updating and cleaning data atlases is crucial in data accuracy, completeness and credibility, she says, explaining and emphasizing the critical importance of having a good geo-data management system for pest control.
Zimbabwe’s Veterinary Technical Services director Dr Pious Makaya welcomed IAEA’s support.
“As a country, we are committed to seeing the burden of tsetse and AAT are eliminated,” he says, explaining that this is evidenced by the clearance of tsetse from over 60 000square km since independence.
“As we speak, we (Zimbabwe) are moving towards eradicating tsetse from all settled areas by 2023,” he says.
While the country has faced its share of challenges – from impacts of climate change, Covid-19 pandemic, and lack of modern surveillance equipment and technology – it has continued supporting clearance of tsetse so as to promote food and nutrition security.
“We are also moving towards attainment of our Vision 2030 where our goal is to see Zimbabwe as an upper middle class income country,” he says.
Emphasizing the importance of data management, Dr William Shereni, director in the country’s Department of Tsetse Control, says training and education are also key.
“At the end of the training, we hope to have cadres ready to handle and analyse that data.”
Participants were drawn from Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameron, Coted d”Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
