Abstract
Finding appropriate ways of dealing with the problem of tsetse and trypanosomosis will be an important component of efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa. This article reviews the history of economic analyses of the problem, starting with the use of cost to guide choice of technique for tsetse control in the 1950s, followed by work in the 1970s and 1980s linking these to the impact of the disease on livestock productivity, and in the 1990s to its wider impact. In the current situation, with limited resources and a range of techniques for controlling or eliminating tsetse, the cost implications of choosing one technique or another are important and a recent study reviewed these costs. A novel approach to assessing the potential benefits from removing trypanosomosis by creating 'money maps' showed that high losses from animal trypanosomosis currently occur in areas with high cattle population densities on the margins of the tsetse distribution and where animal traction is an important component of farming systems. Given the importance of the decisions to be made in the next decade, when prioritising and choosing techniques for dealing with tsetse and trypanosomosis, more work needs to be done underpinning such mapping exercises and estimating the true cost and likely impact of planned interventions.
Highlights
Africa’s nations entered the 21st century facing the monumental challenge of combating poverty in a continent which contains almost all of the world’s poorest nations, and where over half of the world’s total deaths in children under five take place
From the late 1940s onwards into the 1950s and 1960s, the economic component of tsetse control work consisted of meticulous recording of the costs of operations
Faced with the closing of tsetse control departments, a gradual reduction in funding and interest, not just in tsetse control and animal trypanosomosis, but overall in livestock, African scientists set up the Pan-African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC)
Summary
Africa’s nations entered the 21st century facing the monumental challenge of combating poverty in a continent which contains almost all of the world’s poorest nations, and where over half of the world’s total deaths in children under five take place. The problem of trypanosomosis, affecting both human and animal health, “lies at the heart of Africa’s struggle against poverty” and dealing with this disease has the potential to impact on all eight Millennium Development Goals—of the 37 countries with tsetse infestations, 21 are among the world’s 25 poorest (PAAT 2008)
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