Abstract
The blood-feeding tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) are the major vectors of the African trypanosomes causing human and animal African trypanosomiasis. In nature, only few flies carry the parasite and the risk for a host to get infected is strongly related to the exposure intensity to tsetse fly bites. Therefore, tsetse fly control/eradication is an essential pillar in the fight against these parasitic diseases. During the feeding process, tsetse fly saliva is inoculated into the host skin. This saliva is a complex mixture of immunogenic proteins raising a specific antibody response in a range of mammalian hosts. Here, exploiting this antisaliva IgG response as biomarker may allow for easy monitoring of tsetse fly exposure in the natural host population. Besides serving as a risk indicator for acquiring a trypanosome infection, this biomarker might reveal low levels of exposure and allow the long-term monitoring of the efficacy of vector control or eradication interventions. A state-of-the-art review is presented on the antitsetse saliva antibody response in different mammalian hosts and the development of serological tools to measure this response as a biomarker for tsetse fly exposure.
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