Trypanosomes found in wild glossina morsitans and wild game in the “Fly-belt” of the upper shire valley

Abstract

In June, 1913, one of the members of the Commission went to the Liwonde district to identify and isolate the various species of trypanosomes infecting the “fly” and wild game in the “fly-belt” which extends along the Upper Shire River valley from Lake Pamalombe to the Murchison cataracts. This “fly-area” is, roughly speaking, 100 miles south of Kasu and the “Proclaimed Area.” It is separated from the extensive “fly-area” of the plains on the west shore of Lake Nyasa, of which the “Proclaimed Area” forms a part, by a range of hills and high plateaux where the “fly” is absent, although there is nothing to prevent trypanosome-infected wild animals wandering from one “ fly-belt ” into the other. The valley of the Upper Shire is thickly populated, and the “fly-area” is crossed by two of the most frequented roads in Nyasaland, the grand trunk road running from Zomba to the north and the main road from Liwonde to Fort Johnston. Although thickly populated, human trypanosome disease, though probably existing, has not yet been discovered in this district. The natives, however, can keep no cattle, and their goats and dogs are constantly destroyed by trypanosome diseases, so that they have to continually import these animals from the highlands.