African sleeping sickness is endemic to 37 sub-Saharan African countries covering 9M km2 with 60 million of the 400 million inhabitants at risk of the disease. Africa is in the middle of a sleeping sickness epidemic and WHO estimate that in 2004 there were ~500,000 cases with 48,000 deaths and an impact of 1.59M DALYs (disability adjusted life years). In 2000 the African Union recognised trypanosomiasis as "one of Africa's greatest constraints to socio-economic development." The trypanosomes causing the disease are transmitted by tsetse flies and currently the only means of regional control of the disease is through vector control. To improve our current capacity to control African trypanosomiasis the African Union has established the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC). The African Union-PATTEC plan is to disrupt trypanosomiasis transmission through staged eradication of isolated populations of tsetse fly vectors on a regional basis and by targeting isolated fly populations ensuring that fly eradication in a region is self-sustaining once achieved. In this application we address two major research goals which are key to the success of the PATTEC approach. First, environmentally acceptable targets and traps will be a key technology in regional eradication of vector insects. The African and European consortium members wish to dramatically improve the efficiency of this process. To this end they will develop, in Africa and Europe, novel attractants for use with traps/targets designed for use against palpalis group flies which currently are the major vectors of human disease. Secondly, regional control of the flies depends heavily on understanding the structures and mobility of the vector populations so that epidemiologically important, isolated populations can be identified. Our current techniques cannot resolve these issues. Consequently, working closely as a partnership, the consortium will develop in Africa and Europe new molecular and morphometric technologies for this purpose. We have assembled a unique, complimentary grouping of African and European scientists who are excellently placed and motivated to achieve these goals through a fully integrated research program. This project plans to:
1. Identify odour attractants for palpalis group flies
2. Perform the field testing of attractants for palpalis group flies.
3. Determine the population structures in palpalis group flies
4. Define the epidemiological importance of sub-populations of palpalis group flies.
5. Transfer this new knowledge to end users.
6. Strengthen the research capacity of African investigators by providing transfer of technology and training of junior investigators