Mapping African Animal Trypanosomosis risk from the sky

Abstract

In Burkina Faso, African Animal Trypanosomosis (AAT) is still a major hindrance to cattle breeding, especially in the Mouhoun river basin, which was identified as a priority area for tsetse control. The attempt of the present work was to assess the abundance of tsetse flies and AAT risk using remote sensing coupled to field environmental data, along a Mouhoun river section of 234 km long, harbouring an open riverine forest where G. tachinoides Westwood is the predominant tsetse species. The water course was classified into three epidemiological landscapes, corresponding to a "disturbed", "natural" and finally "border" vegetal formation at the interface of the two formers. Using the mean number of infected flies by trap and by day as a risk indicator, the border landscape was found to be 5.4 (1.3-12.0) and 15.8 (4.7-41.6) times more risky than the natural and disturbed ones respectively. These results led to propose that a campaign against tsetse, undertaken by a development project called PAEOB (Projet d'Appui à l'Elevage dans l'Ouest du Burkina Faso), should be focussed on only 34% of the hydrographic network.